What’s a word you thought you were using right for years… but later realized you totally misunderstood?

One of my friends was playing cards late at night during Diwali celebration with his cousins and uncles , so , while enjoying his run with the lucky cards , he shouted and exclaimed his joy with a word that up until then ( 25 years ) he used to think it meant something mild , but then the atmosphere became quiet & heavy and he learnt the hard way . Wanna know what the word was !!!

I mean to be fair, native speakers use "literally" for emphasis all the time. Your teacher obviously is the right person to correct it because that's her job but if someone else tried to tell me "Uuum actually you didn't *literally* pass away from laughter" I would assume they're just an annoying person💀 That being said I only recently realised the word Complementary and complimentary are two different words. I was using complimentary to mean both lol.

Actually, A lot of people use literally like that. It doesn't really make sense, but it won't seem too weird if you use literally for emphasis. Especially if your younger.

This is moving away from your question a little bit because its using a phrase incorrectly, and I dont do it but it pisses me off when other people do… “I could care less” People saying this shit bothers me way more than it should but my god its not an overly complex phrase??? People dont actually think about the words theyre saying? If you *could* care less then youre admitting you do care, which is never what they actually want to mean!!!!!! Its couldnt, people, couldnt!!

You weren't using it wrong. Frances freaking Brooke used it in that way over 250 years ago, and hundreds of major authors since have. The whole 'You're using it wrong crowd' are just people that have a need to feel superior, yet are not superior in any way, so they just jump on the wrong bandwagon.

"Literally" now has two distinct uses.

Don't say "so fun." It absolutely grates on the ears. The correct version is "so much fun."

Well, I've learned to make my peace with the fact that in real life both meanings of "literally" can coexist quite peacefully. In authentic situations it's usually obvious from context whether "literally" is being used literally or figuratively. If someone says "OMG, I'm literally dying right now" it's prob obvious they're not "literally dying." If someone says, "you're dog literally just crapped in my yard," it's probably obvious they're not speaking figuratively. Language is full of ambiguities and words with multiple meanings so this is hardly unprecedented nor is it a particularly difficult case for most people to handle in real-life situations.

Avarice. I used to think it meant hate.

The kiwi accent "yes" In the first few weeks of roll calling, I'd played it by ear and said "is" when my name had been called.

Your teacher was wrong. Literally is also used figuratively, just like how the word “really” is used for emphasis instead of something being “real”. You weren’t using “literally” wrong at all, you were using it completely right.

OP is AI, by the way. Clearly stated in their bio

When I was a wee kid, I once heard a person yelling "Eat my dick!" at another man. So, naturally, I came to the conclusion that dick was slang for poo.

Your teacher is being a bit pedantic. In common speech, literally can often just mean figuratively. It's been diluted over time to basically just be a way to emphasise severity. "I literally nearly died of laughter" is just a way to really sell how funny you found something. So you were definitely right to say it like that

You weren't misusing the word "literally," you were just using another one of its definitions (that has existed for hundreds of years and has been used by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain). Look at [definition 2 here](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally).

I thought “affluent” had the same stress as “fluent” And “literally” in informal speech is often used to emphasize. So you were right using it. Example from Cambridge dictionary: informal used to emphasize what you are saying: He missed that kick literally by miles. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/literally

Not me, but my Dad was not a native English speaker and he used to say, "We'll have to play it by year." The correct expression is play it by ear, meaning we'll play the music that sounds right rather than having it written out for us. Consequently, I learned the expression wrong as a kid.

I used to think that "citation" was "situation"

Bely

As an English teacher I gotta say. Penultimate. I always thought it was something like best or most known for. Turns out it means second last.

I thought the word ‘prolific’ means ‘highest level of greatness’ until I heard Ted Bundy referred to as a ‘prolific’ serial killer, and I thought, “That’s an odd compliment to be giving this man.”

Haha I feel this! Mine was “take it for granted.” I used to think it meant “appreciate something deeply” 🤦‍♂️ — turns out, it’s the *exact opposite.* Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize why people looked confused when I said it! It’s crazy how we can *understand* English really well but still mess up the way we use certain words or phrases. I’m actually working on something to help non-native speakers avoid these kinds of “fossilized” mistakes and feel more confident speaking. If anyone here has had similar struggles and wants to share their experience, I’d love your input! 👉 [https://forms.gle/gX4QRaHN6faYdY9m9](https://forms.gle/gX4QRaHN6faYdY9m9)

Candid. I thought the show “candid camera” was a reference to it being hidden. So I thought the word meant its exact opposite lol

Disheveled. I thought it was Dis-hev-eled like the S and H are separate. It’s di-shev-eled

What is the complete phrase of Imao?

Tbh that use of 'literally' makes sense to me. At this point, 'literally' has informally replaced "figuratively". It is way to express how much you do something, you emphasize it more.

I was influenced by the world using lie and lay incorrectly for years until my dad corrected me when I asked my dog to "lay down". It's "lie down" and I've been trying to use it correctly ever since, but I hear the wrong usage all around me all the time!

Sounds to me like you were using the word correctly and your teacher has some misconceptions about how language works.

AI slop engagement farming

“I’m down” Always thought it meant you’re disappointed

“Literally” is used on a kind of Scale of Literality™ (invented by me, literally this very second). At one end of the scale, you have the most strongly literal sense of the word, used to indicate that you mean for a term to be understood in a strict and/or concrete sense. Compare to the related concept of “following the letter of the law” (interpreting the law exactly as written with no deviation from the narrow meaning of the words). In this use, *literal* speech is opposed to *figurative* speech. Example: “A moment after stepping into the bayou, I was literally up to my ass in alligators.” At the other end of the scale, you find ‘literally’ being used for mere emphasis, or even as a kind of decoration. This use is looser, more informal, can be facetious, and may be almost literally thoughtless. Generally, it is a signal that the speaker “means what they say” but not in the *literal* sense. Rather, they want you to feel that they have some sort of emotional or intellectual commitment to their statement. Example: “I literally can’t even [anything or nothing].” At various points along the literality scale, you find uses that tend more in one direction or the other, but it is a sort of continuum of literal-ness. (Literal-ness is *not* a proper English word.) “It was literally my first time in a kayak.” “I was literally freezing in the conference room.” “I literally laughed my head off.” People literally get into fights about their freedom to use ‘literally’ as they choose. There is literally no point in fighting over it, but since I like a certain sort of Spartan discipline, I usually prefer to use ‘literally’ literally. Edited for literally one single typo.

Ensure/insure - thought that they could be interchangeable when speaking of ensuring something happens.

Assalomu Alaykum everone,thank you soo much for all, your conversation is beneficial to me in enhancing my vocabulary

Oven 🤣 I was saying it as “Ouven” Insteaf of the actual pronunciation just how it’s written. My boyfriend corrected me lol

I mispronounced the word "group", sounds like “grope”, you can imagine how embarrassing it can be...

Mollified. I thought it meant horrified instead of appeased.

“Have your work cut out for you” I thought it meant that your work was going to be easy, because it was already cut out for you to do! But no, it means the opposite, that it will be quite difficult.

For the longest time I thought "nothing to sneeze at" referred to something that didn't matter/something trivial, turns out it means the opposite lol

I know it strongly irritates some people when the words “literally” or “objectively” are used in the “wrong way,” but consider that sometimes it is meant to convey humor. It would not be humorous to me if I was not aware that I used the word in anything other than its correct definition. That being said, if you engage in this form of humor, it is helpful to let others who are learning know that “literally” is being mildly misused for comedic effect. However, it is worth knowing that the more people misuse words in the same way, the more language evolves and new definitions are then added to dictionaries. This is the natural course language takes over time, even though some of us are irritated by it. So many people over the years have used “literally” to convey emphasis in a non-literal, non comedic way, that another definition has been added to Mariam-Webster’s English dictionary entry for that word. Unfortunately now what began as one of my favorite jokes is now taken as a boring emphasis statement. Boo hiss.

If you really want to be picky back, etymologically *literally* is *according to the letters*, so can only talk about written text. It’s from the same root as literature.

I thought ‘poignant’ meant apt rather than sad and thought-provoking. I’d be like ‘ooh how poignant’ to something that I felt was relevant but not that deep. I used to love saying it because I like how it sounds, but as my partner now teases me endlessly about it - saying ‘oh how sad and thought-provoking’ to things that are really basic - it hurts my soul to hear it. 💀

Laying vs. Lying. I used them interchangeably until a teacher friend remind me, at 68 years old, of the difference. You lie down on a bed, but you lay a book on the table.

I thought Alzheimer’s disease was pronounced and spelled liked “Old Timer’s” disease. 😔

Literally gets misused so much that its figurative meaning probably should be included in the dictionary under some sort of informal usage label. As much as I hate it.

France is Bacon is the classic example

>I used to say things like “I literally died laughing” or “I literally can't even”—until a teacher politely explained I wasn’t dying… or doing anything literal at all. I mean, you were using "literally" correctly. It's been used as an intensifier for the better part of 300 years. If that usage isn't correct, you better start speaking like Chaucer otherwise none of this is correct.

To be fair, a while back, literally did literally become its own antonym. Oxford dictionary accepted this.

until embarrassingly recently i thought “charlatan” had more of a derogatory sexual deviancy connotation along the lines of “harlot,” “floozy,” “cad,” when it just means a grifter/scam artist. i have no idea where i got that from

Native English speaking American here... I got the city names Indianapolis and Minneapolis mixed up, and thought the latter was called "Minneanapolis" with the extra syllable.

As a kid, before bed, my mom and I would tell each other “goodnight, I love you” then follow it up with “gahbleshyu”… meaning “god bless you”…. I learned later than I’d like to admit that what I thought was one word was indeed three and meant something totally different than what I thought.

funny enough it’s not an entirely incorrect use of the word since “literally” no longer literally means *”literally”* when used in slang

Not a word, and not me, but my mom used to think that in the old Jake from State Farm commercial, the wife says “well she sounds IDIOT” instead of “well she sounds HIDEOUS”. She’s ESL and her English was also lower when the commercial was regularly playing, so it made complete sense to her. Blew her mind when she learned she was wrong years later.

I thought “infamous” meant “not famous”. I was surprised to know that its definition is “well known for some bad quality or deed”. The pronunciation was something I didn’t expect either.

The words ‘I could care less’ vs. ‘I couldn’t care less’. I used to mix them up all the time till my partner drilled it into me.

Depending on when you were using the word “literally”, you may have been using it correctly: https://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/ Many dictionaries have controversially updated their definition to include the way you were using the word, because it’s such a common way the word “literally” is used now. But, it’s still too informal for something like an academic paper.

I was always a big reader, so I learned many words from the context - although not the pronunciation. For DECADES I thought the word "misled" was pronounced "MY-sold". I didn't realized my mistake until I was in my 40's!

I thought ambivalent meant not having a strong feeling one way or the other. Within the last two years I learned that it means going back and forth between two different opinions. I’m a native speaker in my 30s and have been using it wrong my whole life.

My mum (non native speaker) thought hunky dory meant things are unstable and it took me years to explain that hunky dory meant things going well.