when i was courting my wife, she continually abused & misused the word ironic. As much as it frustrated me, i was (then) too polite to say anything. One day we passed a site where a car had crashed into a billboard about safer driving. She responded ‘oh my god, how funny’.
Arrggggghhhh!!!!!

This is great! I’m sure there are many who would not be concerned about the nitty gritty details of how to use the word. But as a writer, and a word nerd as a friend of mine says, I thought this was a great reminder on how to use the word properly.

HOW ABOUT “AWESOME”?

I agree completely. I also think too many people are becoming lazy and careless with written and spoken language.

Another word that I think is misused is “epitome.” Most people, from what I have seen, use it more as a synonym of “the best” or “the highest.”

Oh, the aluminumy!

Isn’t that the same as sarcism?

“My friend, who studies many languages, is now studying Hebrew. Ironically, the one word I used that he didn’t know was lashon (‘tongue’ or ‘language’).”

I haven’t experienced much misuse of irony. My family likes to think up ironic situations for fun. The most abused word that I hear is literally. I hear people say things like, “I literally jumped out of my skin,” and worse, that I won’t share here out of politeness.

I am an 11th grade American Lit teacher and I hear this abused a lot. So, I have to explain the 3 types of irony every year. I think I will do an activity or game on using this correctly or incorrectly! Thanks!

Thanks, I was in the club.I was using it the wrong way.

I’m bothered when Romeo and Juliet is used as a comparison point: “They’re so perfect for each other, like Romeo and Juliet!” Since R&J is basically about the foolish, reckless and brief nature of first love…

“For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

Or if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.”

99 out of 100 people would call that sarcasm.

Well, if situational irony describes an outcome that is very different from what’s expected, wouldn’t several of your examples still fit the bill?

A beautiful, warm day in November is ironic because we expect the weather to be cold and dreary. Running into someone three times in a day is a better example of coincidence than irony, but if it’s unexpected, the term still applies.

Oh, I agree completely. I call my 13 year old son out on the carpet for misusing that word all the time. I learned the definition of it from my 9th grade English Teacher. . .through short stories like The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, and Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl. Both wonderful reads!

I think people say “ackward” way too much. Everything is ackward!! Seriously people, find a new word to describe your uncomfortable lives!! So what is the dictionary definition of “ackward”?

I think “literal” is the most misused word in the English languages.

“I literally blew up.”
“It was literally raining cats and dogs.”

I also hate hearing “via” misused.

“Please contact me via this account.”
“I’ll be gone via these three days.”

I agree with you. To say that it is evolution of the word is to say that calling a dog a banana repeatedly is evolution as well. That would be stupid! Words may evolve up to a point, but there is a line to cross, and misusing the word in that way and in that amount, is just ignorance.

Everything is subject to meaning, whatever meaning prevails at a certain given time is a function of power not truth. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Totally abused. Someone please save the word “ironic”!

I remember someone once explained “ironic” like this: You and your friend are going to a party and you see that you’ve both put on the same exact outfit. That’s a coincidence. You both decide to change, and when you come out, you’re both wearing a new, exactly identical outfit! Because the intended result of both of you changing was that you’d be wearing different outfits, the fact that you are once again wearing identical outfits is “ironic”.

I do agree that language should be allowed to evolve to an extent, but when this word still holds its original meaning, especially in literary and academic situations, it seems wrong to let its meaning be distorted.

i thought ironic meant something opposite or unexpected and yet connected in an odd way. For example, if someone was pro-fitness and dies while working out, that would be ironic. it wasn’t the expected out come. or if someone was racist and then receives a life saving bone marrow transplant by someone of the race they hated, that would be ironic. the way you described the word ironic’s meaning made me think it is more like a mild version of sarcassm.

The constant changing of the meanings of words, has always been driven by common usage. Even though the new usage might ‘grate upon the ear’ of a traditionalist, if evolution is prohibited, and our language doesn’t change, the language will die, just as Latin has become a dead language and Danish is on its way.

There are many words that are used incorrectly. Another very good example is celibate, which is often used to denote chasteness, when it really means, unmarried. A dodge which was succesfully used by rapacious clergy, for a long time.

Of course this is simply my point of view.

Since I’m a teenager I don’t hear alot of irony that’s not harsh, so irony and sarcasm are all the same to me, only sarcasism is a more fun-to-say word. That’s just me.

I don’t formally use the word ironc in my speech or my writing. I don’t know if I misuse it when I do use it. I don’t think I saw an example of when I use it and I can’t quite point it out eiter.

I do use Situational irony skill in my writing. I mean, what writer doesn’t.

It says here that situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected. I think pretty much all the examples you gave above for the misuse of irony were just examples of situational irony. With seeing someone UNEXPECTEDLY for the third time in one day, one would say it is ironic because they wouldn’t expect to the same person three times in a row randomly. If in November, which is expected to be a cold month, it is a hot and beautiful day, then the speaker is not expecting it to be so nice on a day that would usually and expectedly be cold. The last one was vague, but say everyone thought a movie was going to be horrible(say “Twilight” for example) and once they saw it they thought it was amazing they, they didn’t expect it to be so good, so it was ironically a good movie. In conclusion, this article is somewhat true but generally didn’t need to be written about because a lot of people are using situational irony.

I’ll just add Twilight… (totally gettig off subject) Twilight was bad. I haven’t seen it but anything that makes demonic characters look interesting and attractive is bad. And, besides, I’m a teenager remember? I’m following my posse . Twilight was bad. BlitzWulf point was good though… I think.

I think situational irony is just a term in writing, not one in real-life, BlitzWulf.

At least that’s what I learned in school…

i think we should fight this definition-drift with all we have. but then, anyone who knows me will testify that i’m a bit of “word prude”. but i contend: what’s the point of having all these wonderful words like “great”, “terrific”, and “fantastic” if they’re all understood to have the same meaning when, in reality, they all have extremely different actual meanings? and what’s worse, if you use them in their actual sense (terrific to mean inspiring terror, fantastic to mean of fantasy, or great simply to mean unusually large), you’ll be misunderstood, almost without exception. it’s all very frustrating.

BUT, saying it’s “ironic” for it to be a warm, beautiful day in November could certainly be argued to be a case of situational irony in that it is indeed the opposite of what one would expect.

and my vote for most misused word? only because we hear it misused at least once every single day in tv commercials: decadence. they constantly use this word when what they really mean is “sumptuousness”, “extravagance”, “delectability”, or even “opulence”. come on, ad guys. look it up. it doesn’t mean what you think it does.

Surely “hopefully” is the most abused word in English.

I can’t stand the use of the expression:
It’s so fun, instead of it’s so MUCH fun.

Well, if this is indeed true, I’m never using the word ironic again, because I’ll never have the chance to use it.

That’s really a nice explanation and helpful too.

I honestly don’t think that how you describe irony is the correct definition. Irony is when something unexpected happens. You say that it isn’t ironic if someone says, “Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic,” when really, it is. You would expect it to be cold and dreary in November, but then it’s actually beautiful and warm. That’s irony. Some other things that are ironic: a fire station burning down, or a lifeguard drowning.
I think that ‘literal’ and ‘literally’ are the most abused words in the English language. People say, “It literally blew my socks off!” That’s not the correct definition of literal. So, if you’re going to do a blog about abused words in the English language, use ‘literal’.
BTW, I’m in 7th grade.

The most abused word where I live is “epic”, which has now become a synonym of “awesome”.

i learned about irony in my English class… and i do agree that each of those examples show some form of irony (situational especially) someone needs to go to a professor or somebody about this. i hate it when people misuse words…

no the most abused word is Gai

I agree with Bobbie P. I thought irony was limited to a situation with a twist of the story back into itself, so to speak. Jim Fixx, a renown fitness author and perpetual runner who died of a heart attack is a prime example… Nice to know there are other uses.
Is it ironic that I thought people were misusing irony all this time?
If you ain’t learnin’, you must be dyin’.
And Maureen, I think you’re talking about awkward, which is clumsy or lacking grace (for people) and difficult to deal with (for things or situations). One of the few words with wkw. Anyone know of any others?

As a few people have mentioned already but I feel the need to again point out is that Situational Irony is irony when something that is expected to happen or what seems appropriate is different from what really happens. For the example of the November day, A November day is general cold and a warm day is not expect and doesn’t seem appropriate. This fits the description of Situational Irony. If a movie is supposed to be horrible, critics call it garbage and people you know say it stinks and you go to it, you expect it to be horrible. If it’s the greatest movie you’ve ever seen the complete opposite of what is expected happens. Finally if you don’t expect to see a person and then you see the person multiple times it seems to me that is different from what is expected and of course fits the definition of Situational Irony just perfectly. Also words are meant to evolve. Many words we use today are very different from what they meant long ago.

i agree completely that “ironic” is misused all the time. My friend uses it all the time in coincidencedental situations! I HATE IT!

Another big mistake often heard is the misuse of the verbs feel and think. When an individual asks if another ‘feels’ he or she should decide an issue instead of asking what the other person ‘thinks’ should be the course of action it amounts to misuse, in my humble opinion. One other thing—the noun ‘issue’ is all too frequently and inappropriately utilized because of our cultural laziness to open a dictionary. Correct grammar and vocabulary are our gifts and should not be squandered.

This is ironic, me going to this website and searching for “dictionary”.

Ugh, I HATE it when kids at my school misuse the meaning of irony. “Durr, dude, my dad’s birthday is on 9/11. Isn’t that sooooo ironic?”
No, my ignorant friend. No it is not. Unless, of course, your dad is heavily involved in the war on terrorism.

The phrasiology most often abused seems to be “you and I” in such sentences as “She left it for you and I”. If “you and” are left out of the sentence it becomes obious that is is “me” rather than “I”. An attempt to have greater elegance in speaking doesn’t work when it is grammatically incorrect.

I agree with your assessment. I think that the keepers of the English Language are far too reactionary. They believe in letting the public determine the usage.
When I was a child in the forties and fifties we were told in school that French would someday be the universal language. It never materialized because the French were so extremely adamant to any change.
English lexicographers are the polar opposites of the French and for that reason English will fall out of favor too because the looseness of interperetation will soon make it impossible to communicate accurately. Chinese anyone?

I spelled phraseology incorrectly. Sorry about that.

To Maureen
“I think people say “ackward” way too much. Everything is ackward!! Seriously people, find a new word to describe your uncomfortable lives!! So what is the dictionary definition of “ackward”?”

Do you mean awkward? And what kind of new word do you propose? “Awkward” is just the slang nowadays.

ironic=”i was in my car going to a meeting to about how to stop traffic bith then I hardly made it because I was stuck in traffic”- thats irony

The meanings of words change over time, just as society and people change over time. Would you refer to your best friend as ‘nice’ if it still bore the same meaning that Shakespeare implied? So when a friend, colleague or total stranger uses the word ‘ironic’ in a newer fashion, perhaps instead of telling them they are wrong, you could apply a little Socratic irony in an effort to work out what they really mean and hey presto, you both might learn something.

Most abused word? I doubt it. While I agree that the term “irony” is often misused in recent years, the word itself is not actually used casually in day to day language the way some other commonly misused words are. Moreover, I think that while many people may not be completely sure how to use irony correctly, the idea that the word “irony” doesn’t mean precisely what Alanis Morissette, for example, says it does is also fairly well known. The modern usage of the word “irony” seems to be moving more towards a self-referential pop-culture phrase rather than a serious use to define irony.

So what words do I think are more commonly abused? Well, first there’s unique, which means “unlike anything else”, not simply special. “Unique” is misused both semantically, when another adjective like “special” or “interesting” might work better, and grammatically, by trying to modify it. Something is unique or it isn’t, it cannot be “more unique”, “the most unique”, or “especially unique”. There are several other words which should properly be used as boolean (they are or they are not, they cannot be modified), but most are used only rarely.

Another heavily misused word is “gender”, when one should say “sex”. The use of “gender” to mean anything other than the masculinity or femininity of the parts of speech should be limited to social contexts. That is, if you are saying whether someone is male or female biologically, the word is “sex”; the use of the word “gender” means that the person exhibits traits which are associated with a specific sex (eg. aggressiveness is a male trait, kindness is a female trait), or with matters of sexual identity. The word “gender” should not be used simply because you think “sex” is a bad word.

Finally, of course, is the big one, what is probably the most misused word in the English language, “less”. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying that we need to spend less money, or that you’d prefer if you had less work, but don’t forget that in some situations “fewer” is also a perfectly good word. It’s not like the difference between “less” and “fewer” is complex or confusing. If talking about individual items, you use “fewer”; when talking about a single body or compound item, you use “less”. I want to spend less money, so that I can work fewer days. I will eat less meatloaf and fewer cookies. I have less hair than I used to, so I must have fewer hairs on my head.

@BlitzWulf: None of those instances were situational irony. Clearly, too many people skipped the day the 3 types of irony were taught in highschool English class. Maybe more examples comparing simple coincidences as opposed to true situationally ironic instances should have been given in the blog post. It can be a difficult concept to grasp as the differences are subtle. Otherwise, interesting post.
Agreed on the misuse of ‘literally’. ‘Legit’ and ‘legitimately’ are really over- and misused. It always grating to hear. And what on earth is “ackward”? I think ‘AWKWARD’ is misused. It’s also an awkward word to spell.

thanks 4 the info

This article is soooo well written and interesting!

Would it be ironic if I would cut my hand on a First Aid box?

I only misuse the word ironic for ironically humorous purposes.

No, I think “epic” is the most overused word right now.

What’s really ironic is that my ENGLISH TEACHER used the word in place of the correct term of coincidental! She was discussing the play “Twelve Angry Men” saying that the knife, the main piece of evidence, thought to be unique to any other, was was actually not. An identical knife was purchased by one of the jurors. When she described it as ironic, I nearly threw my desk across the room.

[...] of that — with all the knowledge we have gained — yet still eat up the earth — “Isn’t that Ironic” — Mayhap sarcasm is what it’s worth. — What da FA? –>>Rupert [...]

@Ruf,
Thank you for pointing the misspelling out. Funny that they posted on a dictionary website and misspelled the word.

Personally, I’m torn between allowing the evolution of a word to change the meaning, and being a traditionalist in thinking the words should continue to be used with their correct definition. I think that in a perfect world, we would have educated individuals all using a word correctly. However, if you look in the Oxford English Dictionary and see the development of common words, they all evolve and change with the times. Maybe irony is going to be one of those words, along with epic and awkward.
A good example in OED is the word ‘quaint’. It used to be a reference to the word ‘cunt’. I laugh every time I read or hear someone refer to a town as quant now.

Another mix up that irritates me is the use of i.e. as e.g. i.e. is supposed to be used as an outlet to give more explanation for what was meant. e.g. is an example of what was said.

How about “vicarious?” Most often, virtually, used redundantly.

I think the most abused word is weird. Everything is weird! I hear it all the time. Arrggghh!!

I, too, am tired of hearing the misuse of the word “literally.” No, you are not so hungry you could literally eat a horse or so tired you could literally drop dead. Those turns of phrase are meant to be metaphorical…precisely the opposite of literal.

So, if you actually were speaking literally, you’d say something like “I’m so tired I could metaphorically drop dead,” which would just be silly.

Let us resist the drift! I feel it is important to hold to a high level of precision in the use of language – it makes communication more accurate and a lot more interesting.

A sunny November day to me is unexpected but not yet ironic. If you see the sun shining, dress up for it, step outside and it’s raining, that’s almost ironic. If you then go back inside to get your jacket and umbrella and the sun is shining again, when you go back outside, that’s definitely ironic.
Or sunny wheather for three days and when you plan a picnic, it rains.

If you run into a person three times, that’s coincidence. If, after the first time, you remember that you wanted to ask him/her something, and you run into each other again and afterwards you notice you forgot it again and plan to ask next time and you forget it again, that’s irony, too.

If I’m asked “Did you get a hair cut?” and I answer “No, they grew backwards over night.”, then I am being ironic.

I agree with the definition. Irony needs a little more than just one sunny day.

@bobbie pahlavan
I agree,I also thought irony is the connection between words or situations that are opposite but connected in odd ways. And other word sthat I think were frequently abused are “actually” and “basically”.

Another bad one people misuse is litterally. People often use it in place for the word seriously. “I litterally ate 10 hot dogs.” It really grinds my gears.

The truest irony here is that the author didn’t give any decent examples of irony in an article about the word’s correct usage. To use Alanis Morissette’s chorus for some better examples:

Rain on your wedding day would be ironic if the groom was a weather forecaster who had chosen the day because it was statistically the driest of the year.

A free ride when you’ve already paid would be ironic if, the day before, you had received a penalty fine for fare evasion.

Not taking good advice would be ironic if you had frequently acted on advice from the same person in the past and it had turned out to be bad advice every time.

I fully agree with bobbie pahlavan!

Tim Cota: Chinese isn’t really an apt choice given that it’s not the definition of words that changed but their pronunciations across thousands of years. Those that speak different dialects in Chinese have no problem communicating via written word.

Now, if you were a linguist, this would be ironic.

Most people misuse these words in a futile attepmt to sound intelligent and impressive.
So no, we shouldn’t let these literary definitions be grossly distorted.

P.s. everyone who brought up the fact that “literally” is continuously misused is my favorite. No one else understands me when I vent about my frustration!

P.p.s. “ackward” is actually spelled “awkward” just so you know…

I mean literally guys, how ironic.

Oh the hypocrisy!

I think “random” is often misused, especially among younger groups.

I would have say “literally” is the most abused word in the English language.

“The most abused word” sounds more like “the word for which the gatekeepers of language have fallen most behind.” I think people use “ironic” not just in reference to an unusual occurrence, but to note poetic injustice, like that free ride when you’ve already paid. I see a lot of consistency in that usage, which is how one defines a word’s meaning anyway. I agree with others who have said that “sarcastic” can cover a lot of ironic’s old territory.

[...] URL: Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to … alanis, alanis-morissette, being-too, called-out-for, critics-were, her-1995, ironic-, [...]

I submit that the most abused word in the English language is “literally”. People are constantly misusing and abusing that word and it drives me nuts” literally” lol.

Nice to know. So often do I hear people misuse ironic- most people probably just think ironic is a fancy word and use it in incorrect context.

You use ironic like this- “Omg! The FIREFIGHTER forgot to set his smoke detectors” or “The LIFEGUARD has just drowned”

Isn’t it ironic that ironic is so misused? Is that proper? I always said it was ironic that Alannis Morrisette’s song was called Ironic when it wasn’t ironic at all. Phew.

Can i axe u a question. Are u, like, literally being ironic here?

Cuz that would be an awesomely epic fail.

Nice.

There are at least 10 things to hate in the above 3 sentences one of which is that none of them are actually sentences.
See if you can spot the rest!

Patrick on December 6, 2010 at 3:20 pm
“For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

Or if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.”

99 out of 100 people would call that sarcasm.

Reply: Patrick, the 1 other person out of 100 would be the person that wrote this.

For the love of God, people, get a life and move into this century. Language is not stagnant. Stop debating the problems with the changes in language, accept them. Learn how to spell and use proper grammar instead. “Awkward”, “epic”, “gai”, these are expressions people are using in today’s world to express themselves. Just like “cool”, “groovy”, “way out”, “cat’s pajama’s”, “hep cat” were all expressions used at one time by another generation.
Let’s move on now.

Simply stating the opposite of what’s actually going on has nothing to do with irony. Referring as “glorious” to a dreary and stormy day is only ironic if, for some reason, the dreary and stormy day turns out to be glorious after all, counter to what one might expect.

So for instance, if I make plans to go hiking but the weather sucks and I decide to stay home, and out of sheer boredom fill out a lottery ticket that goes on to win me $10 million (that I wouldn’t have filled out had I gone hiking), then this dreary day—ironically—turns out to be a rather glorious one.

I had a girlfriend who slapped me on several occasions. Now she’s a lawyer, and one of her special areas is domestic abuse. That’s ironic.

In order for something to be ironic, there has to be some twist to it. To refer to a Sunday as a Tuesday is merely goofing around.

I think that abuse (misuse) of a language as well-considered and deliberate as English is a good measure of the decline of the society that is perpetrating that abuse. People have become lazy and inaccurate about word definition and usage because they don’t have the discipline required to exercise proper usage — and this is reflected in a million different ways throughout our day. I would posit that if you can’t properly define irony or sarcasm (let alone distinguish between the two), then you probably don’t stand much of a chance of being able to repair a road properly after tearing it up to repair a pipe; you probably can’t appreciate a good play; and you probably will have trouble maintaining a proper marriage or a balanced budget. I say: Abuse the English language at your own peril… or worse, tolerate the abuse, and imperil us all. (See Ebonics.)

Should we be flexible and evolve? If you want to add a new entry to the lexicon that adds value and bears some relation to the rest of the language, then sure, why not? But if you want to declare something to be something else, simply because an ignorant majority find it easier to do so than to study and understand… well, that’s just doomed. Proper English in my view is less of a birthright, and more of an occasion to be risen to. And there ain’t nothin’ ironic about that. At least not intentionally

Being a “word prude,” like Jim, I agree that we should “fight this definition-drift with all we have.” I also want to mention to all of those who cited “literally” as an oft-misused word that there is an entire blog devoted to the word. It’s called “Literally, a weblog” and it’s very refreshing for those of us who fear for the English language.

So I never read any of these things but for some reason this caught my eye. And thank you website, for all this time I have misused and abused the word ironic. Also, I apologize for being the annoying person with in proper English. Thank you for distracting me from my paper….in a good way My next sentence will PROPERLY use the word ironic!

I thought irony is supposed to be something that is happening, but it means the exact opposite.

And another thing, is hypocrisy sometimes ironic?

e.g A church goer parks his car at a no parking spot near a church.

And is this example ironic?

There was an article about the word ironic in Dictionary.com. Under the article were comments. Some of the comments had wrong grammar. How ironic.

Is that ironic? (I’m not trying to be mean or anything. I just need a quick example.)

Stimmt.

Also, i see people using the word “legitimate” (mostly “legit”, though, for short) in half their sentences where they mean to use another word like “awesome”, “cool”, or even the slang adjective “beast” (which would be more acceptable…. even though, in real grammar world, it’s exclusively a noun). As in:

“Woah, I saw this movie yesterday. It was legit!”

“Dude! Your pizza’s frickin’ purple! That is so legit!!!!”

but if you replace the short word for “legitimate” it makes so little sense that it makes me want to hit the offender in the face with a dictionary.

I would say that ironic is probably the second most commonly abused word in the English language – second only to “ignorant.” Ironically, so many people are ignorant of the meaning of the word ignorant.

Coincidentally I use awesome ironically…

Irony is written, sarcasm is said. I think. Not sure, but pretty sure.

No, it is not the most abused word in the English language. The most abused word is surreal. I think almost everyone has used it in a t.v. interview in the past 3 years. I’m looking forward to the day when everyone has managed to use it to describe some experience they have, then hopefully I won’t hear it again.

legit . . .

if anyone is out there please respond! in desperate need of help on my paper

Isn’t it ironic that people will now be afraid to use the word ironic for fear of using it incorrectly?

it’s all the fault of those dang hipsters!

I’m sorry, I was just being sarcastic

I disagree. While plenty of people incorrectly use ‘ironic’, there are way more that abuse the word ‘literally’.

It literally makes me want to smack ‘em around.

This is really cool! I didn’t understand at first but now it’s really clear to me! I can now correct people if they say the wrong thing. Thanks!

?

I think the word “random” is the most horribly abused word in the English language. I’m too lazy to look it up but I think the definition of “random” is to have no plan, no purpose, and no pattern.
I’ve thought about it for quite some time already, about two years. So far, the only thing I can say is truly random are dreams, given that you dream about anything you thought of, heard, or saw the day before, and given that it’s not a recurring dream.
Basically, it’s safe to say that “random” doesn’t even exist.

most abused word today is like.
true story.

The author wrote about the misuse of the word “ironic” without realizing he is misusing the word himself. How ironic.

I really agree with the article…I was always very confused about the meaning of irony and annoyed at how the word is vaguely used…this has cleared my confusion thankfully! But I still dont know how to use the word ‘ironically’ in a sentence…and is there a correct phrase to use instead of ‘how ironic’ in such cases as “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic” ??
What is that situation called?

-Epiphany M. Hunter – Yeah, teenager here too. I agree. Twilight was lame.

-Jim- Yeah. Ad guys were born to use words incorrectly.

Anywho, I digress. Yes, it really irritates me when people use words incorrectly, or just simply have poor grammar,but really, some of them are so inset in our vocabulary, ther’s no turning back. For instance ‘cool’, ‘awesome’, ‘epic’, ‘literal’, and just about anything else you can find in a slang dictionary…. But hey, maybe it’s just because I’m an aspiring author AND teen, but I agree with both arguments, to a point. I think we definately need to try to improve the grammar and word usage of the this and future generations, but on the other hand, we shouldn’t stamp it out completely. It’s part of growing up. So what if we say ‘cool’ when we talk about a concert, rather than a refridgerator? So, what I’m trying to say is that Ithink we should try to prevent further deterioration of our vocabulary, rather than restore what we once had.

Dave Eggers rants about the misuse of «ironic» in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; it’s pretty golden.

I think the term “it begs the question” is often misused.

My 4-year-old son stuck a pair of tweezers in an electrical socket when I wasn’t looking. It actually vaporized about an inch off of each tine. Ironically, he is now afraid of tweezers.

@oldmanjarrad Ah, the irony!

I find it very ironic (I think) that there is a word with Sarah Palin’s name in it that means “regeneration or rebirth”. It’s “PALINGENESIS”. If it’s not ironic what would it be? Seriously! Some might say it’s oxymoronic, but that would be strictly personal opinion only, and debatable.

The only ironic association in Alanis Morissette’s 1995 song, titled “Ironic”, was that it still became a hugh hit when quite evidently she had no idea what the word actually meant.

So we might say “That’s incredible ! – which of course means we don’t believe it, or do we?

I still remember verbatim the explanation for ‘irony’ (and all its forms) which I was given in grammar school. It is still the best I have seen:

“Irony is implied contradiction.”

How could that be difficult for native English speakers to grasp?

….and I might have meant to say “means” but I I had the means to say “meant”. So don’t ask me, I am a kangaroo

i guess ’sarcasm’ differs from ‘irony’ in that it involves another party whom the expression is directed at.

I think alot of people misuse sarcasm more. I’ve seen too many equate sarcasm with just a few snide remarks, or if they’re in a bad mood and happen to say something they’re being “sarcastic”.

‘Irony’ as a tone in writing I think is applicable in a satire.

I have thought about this language drift a lot. When we start with Word A having Meaning A, and then Word A adopts a different meaning in other contexts, this is good evolution. In fact any evolution in which meanings and words become enriched is good. Sometimes, however, we start with Word A having Meaning A and Word B having Meaning B. Evolution leads to Word A referring to both Meanings A and B and Word B used hardly at all. The language is impoverished. Such is the case with “ironic” and “coincidence”. We can let go of “begging the question” because we have the phrase “circular reasoning”. Philosophers are just as bad as laypeople in wanting to use “cool” language. No, I do not want to say, “That’s circular reasoning.” I want to sound erudite.

If something happens that is unexpected AND there is something else going on than coincidence, then there may be irony. Meeting someone three times in one day is not ironic. A warm day in November is really borderline. American soldiers fighting Iraqi soldiers bearing American-made arms in the First Gulf War is ironic.

I hope you’ll continue to point out misuse of language, not because it will do anything to correct it, but because it’s interesting to read.

If language didn’t continually produce and accept “errors” such as the ones you point out, we’d still be conversing in primeval grunts. Know what I mean?

Grunt. Snort.

I forgot to include my candidate for most abused word. When was the last time you saw the word “free” to mean “available without cost”. Is there any word in the English language at the current time that _does_ mean “available without cost”, or is that a concept without an application? I even saw an advertisement that said, “If you sent another $60 we will include blah-blah for free.”

I find it quite “ironic” that a website that lauds the complete understanding of the true definitions of words would happen to incorrectly define the word sarcasm in this blog post. While it may be true that sarcasm is often confused with irony, sarcasm IS irony – only less sophisticated. True, sarcasm has more of an intent to mock, and is usually more harsh or derisive, however the most important point here is that sarcasm itself is a form of irony.

I also find it quite droll that while the title of this article blares “WHEN IS IT CORRECT TO SAY ‘THAT’S IRONIC’?” there is an apparent lack of information regarding the actual definition of irony. Also, while the author of this post may attempt to attempt to address the various forms of irony, there is very little elaboration.

There’s much more to irony than is implied in this post. Any good satirist or reader of satirical works would understand that.

I have never heard a person use “ironic” to emphasize something exciting. However, I hear it misused every day and it just gets me angry. This is the important stuff in the world. Forget world affairs because when it comes down to the tiniest detail, knowing how to use as powerful a word as ironic is significant.

Language is limited enough already. There’s no need to muddle it more so through misuse of words.

I feel like one of the only people who thinks that these misuses are generally harmless. You know the proper meaning, congratulations! So long as you understand the intended meaning, you’re communicating. Isn’t that the point? The only argument I’ve seen here that’s really valid is pointing out how difficult it might be for a non-native to apply the language, but hey, that’s culture.

What’s ironic is that this website’s 3rd definition of ironic is “coincidental; unexpected”. Ah, the irony. Years ago, I always knew that people misused it, and I always pointed it out. Now I just go with the flow, since everyone uses it that way. I think language is meant to evolve, and the definition and usage of words will change throughout the decades.

If you don’t like the evolution of language, try reading ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell, it’s a neat experience.

I think that, though language will and must evolve, it is important to be educated on the proper usage of the English language. A word that is widely misused is “myself”. This is one of my biggest grammar irritants at the moment (comma overuse is another). For example, “If you have any questions, please see myself.” Oy!

hi

@ Patrick …which makes ’sarcastic’ a contender for most misused word in English.

Rob – That is HILARIOUS!!!! (And yes, I do mean “extremely funny”, though I did feel compelled to look up “hilarious” before posting this to be sure I didn’t misuse the word.)

My favorite misused word isn’t even a word at all. Let’s hear it for “irregardless”!!!

“For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

Or if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.”

I believe these are examples of sarcasm. I also think that irony should not be defined as a mild form of sarcasm.

Also, could someone tell me what is with the word ‘AWESOME’?

“blah blah blah -makes a typo-
I’d fix that typo but i feel too lazy to click and change it.
the irony of this is that it would have been a lot easier for me to just correct that typo instead of writing all of that after it.”
Made me lol

The confusion right here could probably be the usage of the word. How the word is being used? IRONY-noun and IRONIC-adjective.

@Rob
That’s not very ironic, it would be ironic if he had an unusual fascination of tweezers or something. like “my son was nearly killed by tweezers when he was 4, ironically he is now obsessed with tweezers and uses them for everything he can now.”

Is it ironic that at 19 years old that I was telling my friend that I had never been in the hospital since the day I was born and the next day I was hospitalized with inflammation of discs in my spine and nerve damage? I kind of thought it was… but maybe it was just a coincidence?

“Ironic” is second only to “incredible” as the most misused word. Incredible is often used to attribute some great quality, usually to a person. A news journalist recently gushed that an esteemed colleague was an “incredible reporter”. Now THAT is ironic.

Patrick- I agree that the examples of irony in this article are more sarcastic than they are ironic. Something isn’t ironic just because it’s unexpected, it has to be contrary to what is expected.
Maureen- You are on a dictionary website. It is ironic that you are seriously upset by what you consider to be the abuse of the word awkward, and yet you abuse the word yourself by misspelling it. Also, although the word awkward has become common in everyday language, at least it is (generally) used in the proper context and isn’t being abused.
Kalina Myers- Yes.
Harry Potter- I hate to disagree with you, because I love you, but as you seem to appreciate literature, I would think that you would also appreciate language.
bobbie pahlavan- Good examples of irony
dedee- If we let the word ironic digress to become synonymous with the word coincidental, which has a completely different meaning, what word will we use to express the concept of irony? Also, the first definition of celibate is: (n.) “a person who abstains from sexual relations.” Check it out- you’re on a dictionary website. The rapacious clergy’s success was thanks to the ignorance of the masses, and their own hypocrisy.
BlitzWulf- Situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be VERY different from what was expected. Seeing the same person three times in a day, though unexpected, is still just a coincidence. For expanded examples, see jahu’s comment. As for your “Twilight” example, I think that it would almost be ironic if “Twilight” was made with the intention of being a terrible movie, but turned out to be really good. But this would seem like some sort of marketing ploy, which would undermine the irony. In general, though, finding out that your reception of a film differs from that of the critics’ should not be considered ironic.
Epiphany M. Hunter- Situational irony is a term used in writing to describe instances of situational irony that take place in real life or fiction.
Timothy- A warm November day is, as you implied, inappropriate- not ironic. Disagreeing with critics and friends about the quality or value of a movie is just that- diverging tastes and opinions. I’d say that the goodness or badness of a film is too personal and subjective to be a useful subject of irony.
Susan White- Please read Chris Amberlain’s comment.
Louise Monroe- The term “gai” (presumable “gay”) as it is used today to mean “stupid” is offensive to some homosexuals. And I think you mean “hip cat,” not “hep(atitis) cat.”
Chris Ambarian- I totally agree with you.
Timna- “Ironically, the life guard drowned when he dove into the pool in an attempt to impress the girls sunbathing.” And it’s called a coincidence when you run into someone three times in a day.
Phil- No, irony happens.
Rob- That is not ironic, that is to be expected, which is the opposite of ironic. Your son would be kind of an idiot if an experience like that did not result in an aversion to tweezers.
For those who argue that language evolves, I say that’s all well and good for words with synonyms. As far as I know, “irony” is the only term that accurately conveys the concept of irony.
I also agree that the word literally is abused at least as badly as the word ironic. In fact, because “literally” is generally used in place of “metaphorically” or “figuratively,” which mean the exact opposite, I would say that the misuse of literally is even more egregious than that of irony.
I am also upset by the misuse of the word travesty as a synonym for tragedy. They kind of sound the same, but they don’t mean the same thing. For the record, a travesty is a cruel, mocking imitation of something. A tragedy is a really unfortunate event.

conjunctions are the most abused words in the English language

Isn’t IRONIC? or Isn’t IRONY?- Maybe either.

Misuse of “ironic” isn’t nearly as annoying as “epic”. Gawd, I wanna shot someone every time I hear it.

i think the person who said “ackward” instead of “awkward” on a dictionary website was being ironic…so really there is no need to go posting corrections.

“christine on December 6, 2010 at 4:24 pm

Another big mistake often heard is the misuse of the verbs feel and think. When an individual asks if another ‘feels’ he or she should decide an issue instead of asking what the other person ‘thinks’ should be the course of action it amounts to misuse, in my humble opinion. One other thing—the noun ‘issue’ is all too frequently and inappropriately utilized because of our cultural laziness to open a dictionary. Correct grammar and vocabulary are our gifts and should not be squandered.“

Since this site doesn’t have a quote function, here’s what I find terrible funny about this.

In chinese, you can use the word xiang3 想 for think, and also for feel. It has the same meaning. This person talks about cultural laziness, but obviously is lazy him/herself because they don’t understand the close psychological relationship to “think” and “feel”, at least from LITERALLY the chinese language. It’s so IRONIC he/she complains about cultural laziness, though he/she him/herself is culturally lazy.

God, I hope I used those two words in caps correctly for you grammar nazis!

Tools.

I agree with your defence of the original meaning of the word. It is one thing for a word’s meaning to evolve and another for a word to be used in an uneducated way. It occurred to me, however, that my last usage of the word may have been incorrect. I wrote to a friend, “I have been crying a lot while listening to music lately. Ironically, the band I have been most frequently listening to is called The Tears.” Is this incorrect usage or an example of situational irony?

I agree with you but, as much as I hate to see the meaning of ironic slide, I have to agree that things do change and with them, meaning. For example, there are many words now that are derogatory that didn’t start out as such.

‘Literally’ is the most abused word in the English Language. Notable misuses I have encountered this year are:

1) A candidate I was interviewing came out with this gem: ‘I literally hit the ground running’. If only.
2) A friend commented when visiting me in Dubai, ‘it literally couldn’t get any hotter’. It could.
3) On an English reality TV show, ‘I literally ate my own bodyweight in Big Macs’. It certainly looks like it.

Grrrr, it literally makes my blood boil.

Patrick and KM are absolutely accurate in their explanations here.

Tim Cota on December 6, 2010 at 4:28 pm

I agree with your assessment. I think that the keepers of the English Language are far too reactionary. They believe in letting the public determine the usage.
When I was a child in the forties and fifties we were told in school that French would someday be the universal language. It never materialized because the French were so extremely adamant to any change.
English lexicographers are the polar opposites of the French and for that reason English will fall out of favor too because the looseness of interperetation will soon make it impossible to communicate accurately. Chinese anyone?

Ok, I have to comment on this too. Chinese is more vague than any type of English. The whole system is made up of ideas and idioms. Anyone who knows chinese, say me, can see it. For example, whats a 飞蛾的尽头? Take it literally by the characters. Flying moth ’s end/fully exhaustive head. Now please tell me, what does that mean? To understand it, you have to understand a chengyu, 飞蛾投火, flying moth reach up to/bring up(this character itself is so “idea”alized.) fire. What does 投 mean? In 投票 it means “cast a ballot”, but in 投球 it means like, shoot a basket(in basketball). The word is more of an idea of the motion of going up, but different that 上 which is actually “go up” or 升, ascend, or numerous other things.

So you to understand 飞蛾的尽头 you need to know 飞蛾投火, which means “like a moth flying into fire”, or in more natural english, “being on a certain path to destruction”. So when you hear from s.h.e’s superstar, 你是火，是我飞蛾的尽头, it’s literally “you are fire, (you) are my flying moths exhaustively ended head, then more based of figurative meaning, from your previous required knowledge of the other chengyu, it means in a idiomatic english, “you are my kryptonite” with the ironic(oh theres that word again!) sense that I know you are bad for me, but I can’t stay away from you.

Chinese dictates the sense of idea and feel right from the start where other languages barely scratch the surface. This has its pros and cons, cons being it’s hard to express certain english ideas like sarcasm and certain forms of being subjective, with pros being able to speak very figuratively.

Continuing on to another post someone made:

tia on December 6, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Tim Cota: Chinese isn’t really an apt choice given that it’s not the definition of words that changed but their pronunciations across thousands of years. Those that speak different dialects in Chinese have no problem communicating via written word.

Now, if you were a linguist, this would be ironic.

行 in classical chinese means “walk”. 走 means walk in modern chinese. 走 also happens to mean “run” in classical chinese. 食 means “eat” in classical chinese. 吃 means eat in modern chinese.

It is actually harder for a native speaker to learn classical chinese than a non-native speaker, because of the great differences in meaning in characters across time. They retain certain elements, but as anyone knows, language evolves over time and meanings get extended. Take 所以, it means “so” like, “so, what do you want”? whereas in classical chinese, it means “that which you take up to” example(don’t make fun of my classical chinese now!)吾所以食人,粟也. That which I take up to feed people is millet. Also, 吾 in classical chinese means I, whereas you never use this character in modern chinese. 食 as i said above means to eat, but it also means when read in the falling tone(which doesnt exist in modern chinese anymore) to feed, transitive towards people. 也’s meaning also changed dramatically, going from a topic assertion or focus marker in classical chinese, to meaning “also” in modern chinese.

Definitions havent changed in chinese, yeah right. Im not going to even get into regional variations on written words, and how some are used differently.

aggressive, once misused for eloquent

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ironic

?

You can sit there and rage against the dying of the light all you like but in the end this smacks of those in the 1980s and 90s who argued the word should be ‘catsup’ not ‘ketchup’. At the end of the day, a word means what the majority of users say it means.

So many of these “examples” are so bad!

Most of these are either just unexpected or coincidental.

Irony is complex, it’s not something that comes up often, like coincidence or an unexpected outcome; the cause and effect must be inter-related somehow.

For example, identical twins separated at birth that reunite at a lecture after 30 years apart isn’t ironic; it becomes ironic when the lecture is about disproving that genetics can affect personality, aptitudes, and interests, through case studies of twins.

I’m going to list 3 things that contain true irony:

The outdated medical practice of Bloodletting to balance “Humors”
(This medical treatment did more harm than good to its patients)

The Prohibition era of the 20’s
(Prohibiting alcohol in an effort to stem “immorality” caused a crime wave and created a new drinking culture in the form of the Speakeasy)

Batman’s burden
(He must break the law to more effectively combat criminals)

I think this is just how the world is, language is evolving, eventually what we are calling “wrong” about the use of the word ironic will be considerd simply another meaning of the word, kinda sad though. Being a teenager myself,I like the modern use of random, the way people use epic however gets on my nerves. I would agree with a couple of you guys that epic is the most overused word in the english language

I remember a story I heard of a very poor couple. She had beautiful long hair. Her husband had a watch which was very special to him. For Christmas she has her beautiful hair cut off and sold it to buy him a chain for his watch. He sold the watch to buy her a comb for her hair.
That’s ironic.

“Literally” is another bad one. I think people know what it means, but form sentences containing it with out thinking about whether something is actually literal or whether they just wish to emphasize something. I admit i’m guilty and catch myself out on this one every now and again.

I personally think ‘irony’ is almost always situational while sarcasm is something a being can chose to adopt. I can never be ironic if I am stating the opposite of what situation it is. It is always ‘being sarcastic’. Irony is something which is there, without any subject being involved in it.

i think most of the occurrences in the song “ironic” of alanis morissette were quite relevant with the word, ironic. she was meeting a guy who was the man of her dreams while he was beside his beautiful wife, for example. similarly, song was mentioning someone who should smoke under the “no smoking” sign in his/her smoking break. i think morissette’s song was quite relevant with the term ironic.

I’m glad that something has been said about this! I always finding myself correcting my best friend. “That’s not really ironic…”
I think I need to post it on Facebook for more people to see, haha! WE don’t need to evolve, THEY need to learn proper English.

Also, to those in the comments: Just because a word is overused doesn’t mean it’s abused. “Literally” isn’t exactly being abused when someone says “I literally jumped out of my skin,” for example. It’s more of a hyperbole.

“Like” isn’t abused either, just overused. VERY overused.

I do agree that “legit” is abused, though! And the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard is “legitly.” LEGITIMATELY, PEOPLE. And they get mad at me for correcting them!
The most common usage I hear is “Dude, that’s so legit!” and having noticed that, I agree that it is becoming a synonym of “cool” and other such words.
But on that note, I have a question about it. Can “legit” be used as a synonym for “real” and “legitimately” for “actually”? Because the definition of it here on dictionary.com means legal. If you don’t think of that so literally as referring to the law, can it be used as in accordance to reality rather than the law? Or would using it while not referring to the law be incorrect completely?

How ironic that a website dedicated to recording the continuous evolution of the language should be decrying the evolution of the language.

Ironic is not nearly as misused as ICONIC. Everything these days seems to be “iconic” and hardly a news report goes by without the word being used.

Oh … and by the way I get so irritated by people who say they are “angry at” something. You can be angry about something, angry with someone but you can’t be angry at them … rant, rant, rant.

[...] english to french help pleasee [...]

[...] I”m so guilty of missing using this word myself. Amplify’d from hotword.dictionary.com [...]

In my country, “apparently” is often misused. Many use it in replacement of ‘consequently’ or ‘accordingly’.

Also ‘awkward’

It is not wise to toy with irony.
It is a habit alien to the soul
But native to the mind,
Whereby we find
A man can die
Laughing.

Thanks for the info. I knew the meaning of the word and yet I still fell into the category of misusers. The weird thing is, I only misused the word when I speak, not when I write. Isn’t that ironic? (SMILE)

The issue of “irony” as used in our language is interesting and reading all of the Comments tortures my long understanding of the word. Personally, I will stand with those who believe irony must contain a total reversal of obvious intentions. Accidentally smashing one’s car into a Drive Safely sign strikes me as ironic. Encountering the same friend three times in one day strikes me as coincidence. A beautiful and warm Thanksgiving Day is not irony, merely unexpected, perhaps even a paradox which can be described as any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature. The irony would be my bringing in extra firewood on the Wednesday before a 68 degree Thanksgiving Thursday.

All of that notwithstanding, and respectful of your opinions, I am stunned by the abuse of grammar and spelling in many of the Comments. Additionally, I am of the opinion that the most abused word in today’s oral usage is “like”. It is right up there with “Have a good one,” and spoken sentences that are ended with rising intonation.

I’m English so I bypass the irony and go straight for the full on sarcasm.

This is great! I’m sure there are many who would not be concerned about the nitty gritty details of how to use the word. But as a writer, and a word nerd as a friend of mine says, I thought this was a great reminder on how to use the word properly.

I think the most abused word these days is “ignorant”. I get so sick of hearing people say “that’s ignorant” to things that are in fact just rude. That does not make any sense at all, if they would just open a dictionary they would see that ignorant means “lack of knowledge”. So now whenever I hear someone use that word in that way i just ask them, so…. they are lack of knowledge?

LOVE IT! but, really you never told anyone how to use ‘ironic’ in a sentence.

In response to your question about whether we should “let language evolve”, I would ask do we have a choice in the matter?

Sarcasm is from the Greek word for flesh, sarkos, implying the clawing or eating of flesh. That might help determine the difference between irony aimed at pointing out a sharp truth, and sarcasm designed to wound.

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to say “that’s ironic?” | … [...]

Agreed it is over used and I am especially tickled when I hear people said “that is so ironic” and it is way way wrong. However, I think people are most confused in using the coincidental meaning of the word: coincidental; unexpected. I think people should use words in new contexts but not stray from true meaning. If there was a way for people to grasp how to use “ironic” in terms of what is unexpected in a kind of works kind of not manner, it would probably help them deal with daily reality and – in turn – make the world a better place.

Question: If situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected, then couldn’t “Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!” be irony if the expecation was that the movie would be bad??? Following your own definition that seems to qualify.

There are more important things to fix in everyday speech. If only we could get Americans to quit saying “If I would have…” It is not an English construction – see Prof. Brians if you disagree.

Most overused word is definitely ”amazing”. At least, on award shows it is. Seems to now mean anything that is not totally bad.

I have noticed ‘random’ is often used when the correct term should be ‘arbitrary’.

Picking a number out of a hat is an example of picking (pseudo-)randomly.
Picking any old number out of your head, for the sake of having a number, is an example of picking arbitrarily.

This always bugged me too. I feel like screaming when people misuse that word. One that gives irony a run for its money is “literally.” People use it nowadays when they mean “approximatley” or “virtually” or just as an emphasis word. I heard someone say, “There were literally a million people there,” in reference to a party.

Irony = Yes, it really irritates me when people use words incorrectly, or just simply have poor grammar,but really, some of them are so inset in our vocabulary, ther’s no turning back

Thanks Randomdoodles26, best example so far.

I agree! I can’t stand it when people use that word wrong! So annoying.

Of course, I must agree with what Randomnoodles26 said: “maybe it’s just because I’m an aspiring author AND teen, but I agree with both arguments, to a point. I think we definately need to try to improve the grammar and word usage of the this and future generations, but on the other hand, we shouldn’t stamp it out completely.”

Bu…but…stormy weather IS glorious! It wouldn’t be ironic…

The usage of the word “Ironic” as been my #1 pet peeve for years! I can’t help feeling though, ironically, that the people that really need to learn the proper usage, will never read your article.

Thank you thank you thank you! I’m in highschool where English is abused so very badly and I always hear this misused and abused. I love you. Now I know where to direct most of the people I know. =)

I think the most abused word is “ignorant”.
It seems like if someone is just being silly, they’re “ignorant”.
It really bugs me when people say “ignernt” or “ignent” and not even pronouncing it properly.

Why does it matter how a person speaks the English language? There are so many different people that the set definition of a word will be changed or added on over time anyway.

I have a co-worker who uses the word “irregardless” constantly, and another co-worker who sayd “pendin” instead of “depending” … and yes, never pronounces the “g” in words ending with “-ing”. UGH!

Where kind of chance does humankind have to experience a degree of sanity, if someone doesn’t insist on fundamental linguistic standards? Afterall trees die when one shears off their root systems… Thank you for fighting the good fight.

AAAH! I meant WHAT, not where…. How IRONIC…

George Carlin gave a nice example:

If a diabetic is hit by a truck and killed, that’s not irony. If he’s killed by a truck full of sugar, that’s not irony. It’s irony if he’s killed by a truck full of insulin.

(P.S. Epiphany M. Hunter: “anything that makes demonic characters look interesting and attractive is bad”? Then I guess you shouldn’t read Paradise Lost or The Master and Margerita. Also, “alot” is a verb; I think you meant “a lot”.)

Personally, I find it annoying when people participate in malopropism. This is a great eye-opening article for those who need to learn proper usages of vocabulary.

It is really ironic that the person who wrote this article didn’t even bother to read the actual definition(s) of the word which actually include: coincidental!! therefore, the second sentence/statement (Often the word “ironic” is misused to remark on a coincidence, such as “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.”) is incorrect which could make the entire article invalid for some people.
The editors should make certain those who write similar type of articles do a better job searching/researching the topic.

Respectfully,

Marc

I think these definitions for situational irony are missing the point that ironic events don’t only fly in the face of expectation, but also point out the folly of our expectations and assumptions. ‘Unexpected’ should be used for events that defy expectation, not ‘ironic’.

So for example, a woman leaves New York and flies to L.A., where she falls in love with a man who is also from New York. This is just a coincidence, even though the woman probably did not expect to meet and fall in love with a man from New York there. However, if said person flew to Los Angeles BECAUSE she thinks there are no suitable men from New York, then it becomes ironic when she meets such a man on her trip. It is more about her assumption and motive for travel than about the chance meeting itself.

So for a warm November day, that’s just a nice day. Comparatively warm November days happen every year. Excessively warm November days are simply anomalies, but that’s not irony. They’re just unexpected. If, on the other hand, we purposely choose November to fly from California to British Columbia for a ski trip because skiing should be better in the north at that time, and upon arrival find that it is a balmy 25 degrees C (~80F) in British Columbia, and we hear from back home that it is -10C (~15F) with great skiing to be had in California, then I think we can discuss it as an ironic situation.

I believe it’s all about human folly: our assumptions about life and the world, the actions we take based on those assumptions, and how foolish we’re shown to be from time to time when those assumptions are thrown back in our faces.

I think the best example of irony is the car crashing into the safe driving billboard. Thanks, “oldmanjarrad”!!
Most abused? “Literally”, possibly. Virtually.

Interestingly – and perhaps even ironically – the third definition listed under the dictionary.com entry for “ironic” is:

3. coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.

That directly contradicts this article, which says that it is incorrect to use ironic to describe a coincidence such as “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other.”

This word is indeed much abused. Yet I submit that the word “like” is far more abused.

I found a quarter, that’s great. Wait a minute, I’ve lost a dollar. That’s irony

I like the banter today’s entry brings. It is still very confusing to me, however. I simply think of irony is when someone rants about some activity say, for example, don’t drink and drive and is then found guilty of the very thing shortly there after. Saying irony is simply when an outcome is different than what is expected would make all mysteries studies in irony. That does not make any sense to me.

I feel that many of my acquaintances confuse facetious with sarcasm. The comparison of sarcasm and irony in today’s entry did not help me there very much.

I think the most misused word is “ignorant”

I totaly agree with “yes”. ( funny name by the way ) Some people use “like” in every sentence. it’s at the up most irritating X-(

Language has always evolved and it should because times and situations change. Your example of “having a cold” but saying “feeling like a million bucks” would more than likely be thought that the person was well except if looking at their facial features or hearing that “stuffy nose sound”. I remember when the word “hip” meant a part of the body but became to also mean “do you understand” or “are you current with the times (we are now in).

I provided my Zip code to a store clerk the other day who inquired during my purchase. She responded with, “Awesome!” Really? A Zip code now qualifies as being awesome? Wow! That’s like amazing, totally! It should be a federal law that everyone own and make use of a dictionary.

The word ironic falls in between the words coincidence and contradiction. This is a confusing world with confusing words. Who cares if someone misuse it…but if you going to teach, teach with kindness and love. Teach in such way that you want to broaden others’ world and not such that may sound like you are criticizing others for not knowing what it meanings. Most of us don’t even know the true meaning of our names let alone other words….words are just sounds giving a meaning to it by men….

Cyberquill (from above comments): “In order for something to be ironic, there has to be some twist to it. To refer to a Sunday as a Tuesday is merely goofing around.”

I agree with Cyberquill 100% on this! If something unexpected happens, it’s not “irony”; We have another word for that: “unexpected”.

An unsually hot day in November is not “ironic”. It is unusual, yes. It is unexpected, yes. Ironic? No!

Irony has a twist to it, whether comic or tragic, it has a strangness to it.

For example, all of John Hinkley’s shots missed President Reagan. Reagan was actually hit by one of Hinkley’s bullets which ricocheted off of the bulletproof glass from his limosine: THE VERY SAME GLASS THAT WAS PUT IN PLACE TO PROTECT HIM FROM GUNSHOTS!!!!!! That is irony.

Irony has personality, a sense of humor (sometimes dark!) always present in the background.

A word I find amusing when misused is ‘ignorant’. Amazing that it may be, three times I have now heard this word to be used when somebody is ignoring the speaker. I find the ignorance of the meaning of the word ‘ignorant’ astoundingly IRONIC.

Yeah Adam and Cyberquill – am right with you on those definitions. Rob, I think that would be kind of expected, hence not so ironic.

Did anyone else see the story about the South Korean couple that were so addicted to playing online computer games that they let their three-month old baby starve to death? Ironically, the video game they were so addicted to was about protecting and nurturing a virtual child…….unglaublich.

Paradox, coincidence and contradition = irony

Great example KM

like – epic = tie for most abused
I think it ironic that ironic gets abused when it is rooted in iron. Oughta be strong enough to stand on its own me thinks…

The definition of irony and its discussion on this page is ironically misleading.

Very glad to see this article, and I agree with the others about the other commonly misused words, ie literally. The one that irks me the most is “myself”. Almost daily, I’ll hear someone say something along the lines of “if you need something, give myself a call”. Sorry, but I can’t to anything to yourself and you can’t do anything to myself (within PG limits).

Another one is “So”, as in “I am so hungry”. I hear things like this and keep waiting for the rest of the thought. I’m so hungry that I can eat a horse or that my stomach is growling, for example.

You should add examples of situational irony if it’s the most commonly misunderstood…

Some other words would be epic and awesome. I’ve heard so many teenagers use those words incorrectly.

“Irony” is decrying the word irony the “most abused word in the English language” (shouldn’t there be a hyphen between “most” and “abused,” anyway?) and then proceeding to magnify the confusion surrounding the word with utterly befuddling and misleading examples and explanations.

Now we’re going to have a whole generation of pointy-headed nincompoops referring to anything unexpected as “Situational irony,” and feeling vindicated as they cite Dictionary.com as their source.

In all seriousness, though, the Morissette song is a perfect example of irony. It’s a song about irony, it’s titled “Ironic,” and yet none of the examples provided in the lyrics quite manage to accurately illustrate irony. That’s irony. I used to think that she was just being clever, and that everyone was missing the joke… until she opened her mouth and shattered that little delusion.

~Saf

I don’t know about ironic, but where i live (Columbus, Ohio) the most abused word is “bro”.

If not already mentioned, I think “per se” can be added to the list of misused words. I believe you just have to substitute the words “in and of itself” to make sure the sentence is correct.

My comment on Alanis Morissette’s song, “Ironic”: Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife, it’s like rain on your wedding day…. These situations are not IRONIC, but rather INCONVENIENT!!!

I disagree that ironic is the most abused word in the English language. This is because languages are fluid with meanings that change over time. How do you think that slang is developed? The word cool has obviously changed yet no one is calling it abused. Fact is not based on what is written down or used to be believed, it is what the majority believes, and if the majority believes in the newer, revised definition of the word, then that would be the truer meaning.

I think “literally” is the most abused word.

Irony has to do with the discontinuity between what a speaker says and what s/he allows as possible meaning of what is said. Irony is a speach device, not an observational tool. “Situational Irony” is a cop out for lazy distinctions.

The beauty of language is how it evolves. We can print definitions all day but it doesn’t guarantee that a word retains that meaning. Perhaps instead of calling deviations from the dictionary entry “misuses”, the dictionary should preface each entry with: “subject to change”.

There are no hard and fast rules for the definitions of words. We create them in what’s called “context”. Look that one up.

Many of you that are disagreeing with the author need to read the article again. If you still disagree, try using the “search” feature on this site to get the definition of these words.

to Rob and the story about your son and the tweezers-That is NOT irony!

For people who think legit is an annoying one, I agree that it is commonly misused, probably thanks to Hot Rod, but since it’s not even the real word, legitimate, does that really even count?

UTILIZED–the use of this word is incredibly aggravating to me. Why not just say, “use?” In my opinion, people choose to use “utilized” because they think it sounds more intelligent–the need to use a bigger word. There is nothing wrong with small words! It is the meaning of the message that is important, not the eloquence with which it is delivered. Besides, using big words is not the equivalent of delivering messages eloquently.

Wow this is awesome! People who are literal and articulate! I had to throw in my first comment, which is actually a story. I happened upon a clip of Dwight Eisenhower at a press conference, probably in the early 50’s, as he described to Americans the nuclear bomb. In closing he said “not only is it powerful, (pause) it is awesome.” Even today, it got my attention, as it must have had on his audience as well, when the word did not just describe a good cup of coffee. My hope is that everyone has the chance, through YouTube or our other everyday electronic reach, to understand how our words have evolved and to appreciate their original impact. Good day to you all!

Marc and John Connor, You are exaclty right!

Felicity–I don’t think you meant up most irritating.

I agree with Maureen, awkward is WAY over-used. My little sister says it ALL THE TIME! Find a different word people!

While I tentatively agree with “ironic” being the most abused word, I’ve developed a case of the jitters over the word “amazing.” I don’t know that it’s abused, but it’s certainly misused and overused. It’s come to be a synonym from the previous contender for all-time overused word, “awesome.” It’s mainly used to describe something very good (in any number of ways). I notice that often (but by no means exclusively), the speaker refers to food. Cupcakes are not amazing — unless, maybe, a dancing alien emerged from the center of them.

I think Mark Twain, my hero in the quest for precision in the language, would find the word’s cultural usage deeply upsetting.

JAFO- I totally agree!

It makes me flinch whenever anyone accuses someone of being ignorant after they have apparently ignored them. Ignorant means a lack of knowledge; it has nothing to do with the act of ignoring! The number of people who are ignorant to this constantly amazes me.

I was given a beat-up BMW. My girlfriend criticized me constantly while I spent energy and time repairing it. When I finished, her car fell apart so she borrowed my BMW (yes I loved her). A few nights later she was driving it in the rain, spun out into a tree and totaled it (I still love her). Is this all an example of irony?

I think the most abused word in English language is su·per·cal·i·frag·i·lis·tic·ex·pi·al·i·do·cious

While there’s obviously a lot of disagreement on the proper meaning and usage of “irony,” I find “literally” to be far more often misused.

RANDOM is definitely the most abused word in the English language at the moment, certainly where I come from anyway. Must be a teenage fad!!

I am a procrastinator. One of my favorite ways to put off my daily chores is to work the newspaper crossword puzzles. This morning, in an effort to curb my procrastination and finish the puzzle quicker, I decided to cheat and look up the definition of “simian”. I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading each one of the entries on this thread…and I still haven’t searched for “simian”! How’s that for ironic?

I really liked the explanation you gave and I agree that people usually misuse it. Unfortunately the people who usually misuse it evidently don’t go on dictionary.com therefore, they will continue to use it incorrectly until someone tells them. lol.

Words and their meanings are bound to change, and there really isn’t too much you can do to stop this. Education should be used to maintain the original meanings and usage, especially in the beginning, but when a word is already well on its way to a new meaning, then the dictionaries should adapt. It is common use that really cements the meanings and usage of words, and trying to fight this will only result in a huge amount of “slang”.

Where I live, the word *sick* is misused all of the time. It is used to mean ‘awesome’ or ‘beastly’ when we all know that it means ‘to be ill’.
I think that ‘ironic’, at least in my household, is used correctly and some of your examples for ironic are just sarcasm. I am in the 8th grade, and I don’t think that ironic is the most abused word ever. If I had to pick one, it would be ‘like’. You kow what I mean. “I was, like, ___ and then he was, like, ___” I am guilty of it and I have been breaking myself of it because it can get irritating.

uhm well..beast is a very misused word where I live…it is now a synonym of awesome, for instanse WOAH that is BEAST!! it doesnt make sense-

Who cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait i’m sorry i am at school and my teacher sucks dirty old bath water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m appalled at the misuse of language today. More than that, though, I hate it when people make up or alter words. Irregardless, a-whole-nother, and “refudiate” are a few of the worst. And Oxford named Sarah Palin’s “refudiate” word of the year? How is mashing two words like refute and repudiate together, which are similar, but not the same, worthy of an award? It’s utterly ridiculous.

to “JAZ” no that is not ironic, your wife is just a bad driver…haha :]

Has anyone bothered to look up the word? The premise is all wrong. Definition 3 from, you guessed it, Dictionary.com states that the word “ironic” can mean “unexpected or coincidental.” Soooooo……

hmmmmm…

Do some more homework.

I enjoy Jane Austen’s definition of the word irony. Where we find two strong truths which contradict, and in the midst of that contradiction, we find an even greater truth.

Stefanie- actually, I did. “up most” is my way of saying “very” “highly” “at it’s peak” “extremely”

And Oxford named Sarah Palin’s “refudiate” word of the year?How is mashing two words like refute and repudiate together, which are similar, but not the same, worthy of an award?

Perhaps they were being ironic?

When I was in the Peace Corps at 49, I found pronouns to be the most misused among the 20 somethings group. I was surprised to find college graduates continually saying things like, “Me and Joe are going to town.”

Here in the south (or misused-word-land, if you will) I hear the word “promise” misused, as in a child saying “It wasn’t me who took the cookies out of the jar; I promise!”

Running into someone 3 times unexpectedly would be ironic if they had each just sent each other e-mails saying “We should get together some time, we seem to NEVER see each other anymore”

I like to make up ironic situations. How about, a charity golf tournament is put on to benefit a person who has suffered a head injury and can’t work. The first golfer tees off, the ball goes into the gallery and conks the guy in the head. (Ironically)

I think that American people need to study their own language more. It makes me cringe when I hear television reporters, who should have a college degree, misuse the word ‘THEORY’. It is almost done on a nightly basis. And this misuse of the word has trickled down into ordinary conversations. I hear people often say “Oh well….its only a theory!” Obviously they don’t know that a theory is a proven fact!!!!!

word

Coincidentally, I had a conversation about the misuse of the word irony only last night!

Felicity Hunter:

May I submit that perhaps you meant the word “utmost” rather than “up most?”

HOW IRONIC HUHHHHHHHHHH

Although I have an ear for grammar, I don’t recall ever hearing the word “ironic” used in any of the abusive manners cited in the article. Perhaps the abuse is more prevalent in geographic regions I don’t frequent?

But even on dictionary.com the meaning given for ironic is wrong and the use of Ironic in a sentence is described to be as coincedental or unexpected.

[ahy-ron-ik] Show IPA

–adjective
1. containing or exemplifying irony: an ironic novel; an ironic remark.
2. ironical.
3. coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.
Use ironic in a Sentence
See images of ironic
Search ironic on the Web

When someone says “Thank you so much,” I usually respond “You’re so welcome.” I’m hoping that they react to that unexpected response by evaluating their use of the word “so.” It has no use in that sentence. I would rather be thanked “very much” than only “so much.”
_aleph_

What I would really like to see is a HotWord entry about the descriptive and prescriptive functions of the dictionary. It seems almost every discussion devolves into that debate sooner or later, anyway.

Thank you all! I enjoy reading the responses. I seldom leave a response, but today! I do not find fault with any of the comments. I do caution, languages are like teenagers. They grow, they discover and they change. I’m not against change, I welcome it; but with knowledge. This language we call English belongs to no nation; but has grown by adopting words and expressions from endemic laguages. Ours is a traders language, developed to allow those who did not speak the local tongue to trade. The meaning of words will change over time. Knowledge of a words origin helps.

Everyone read Dr. Flumbleshlorp’s comment. It is perfect!

Jack Nicholson once said that his mother never saw the irony in calling him a son of a bitch. Whaddaya think? Was it really irony or stupidity?

“Ironic” is certainly in the Solesism Superleague. For overuse though, I’m backing “Random”.

It seems to denote a vast obstinate void in the cognitive cogs of the user.

“….That guy last night was so raaaandom.”

Often drooled in pseudo-toff in that irksome student pine that grates the soul, it is the honorary badge of the moron, an apostasy of The Enlightenment.

to Felicity–but didn’t you mean ‘utmost’ and not up most?

How ironic! I was thinking the exact opposite as in antithesis!

I’m curious: How would the (correctly) non-ironic references in Alanis Morissette’s song be classified? As coincidences, strange or unusual occurrences?

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to … [...]

I agree with the consensus. The article itself misuses and wrongly defines the word “ironic,” (which as another poster commented as ironic itself) and I heard people misuse it all the time.

But I gotta agree… “literally” is the one that really kills me. I want to beat people up when I hear things like “I was so scared, I literally jumped like 50 feet in the air” or “I literally would kill for a piece of pizza right now.” ARGHHHH!!!!!!

Unless the person ACTUALLY jumped 50 up in the air, or actually murdered someone for a piece of pizza, neither thing literally happened.

If people continually and ignorantly misuse words because they are too lazy to read a dictionary or too stupid to understand the meanings of words, it ends up making everyone eventually just sound like morons. We need to resist the meanings of words being changed on account of idiots.

Well, there was this novel I read and really enjoyed called “Artemis Fowl. The Time Paradox” (read the first five if you want to read that one). There was a group called the Extinctionists, who the younger version of the protagonist sold a lemur to. When the older version of the protagonist did something that caused the Extinctionists to be trapped in their headquarters, his friend though “Caged Extinctionists. Artemis would appreciate that irony”. To pages later, the protagonist (Artemis) thought “Caged Extinctionists. Oh the irony.”
I am wondering if this would be abusing the word irony?

In a world increasingly stripped of context (as we consume more info virtually, more and more of the context is stripped away), I’m not sure how useful the word irony will be.

If, however, we’re just in the lull of a post-ironic age, don’t worry about it. It’ll come back.

Never knew I was using the word wrong.Though, the definition does sound like sarcasm to me. But as a teenager there is no real boundry betweeen the two; you are either being literal or your being sarcastic when you talk. And I agree the word “epic” is abused, but it’s just good fun to add it into your conversation.

when i read the incorrect ways that people use the word ‘ironic’ , i started laughing . xD;

I believe that’s why Urban Dictionary was created,for ’slang’ terms and misused and abused words to be made acceptable and correct…I had no idea that ‘ironic’ was being used in an incorrect way…I’ll make sure to watch my way of using that word from now on…thanks for the *heads up* ;D…

A word even more misused among Xers and Millennials is “random.” I’m never sure in just what sense one of them means it when I hear the word uttered by one, but I’m sure it wouldn’t mean anything like “stochastic.”

I would argue that when many people say “That’s ironic,” they are referring to situational irony. I’ve never heard anyone actually misuse the word too drastically. The article says: “Often the word “ironic” is misused to remark on a coincidence, such as ‘This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.’ … ‘Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic.’ … ‘Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!’” I would even argue that whatever person said these things probably did not expect to see someone three times in one day, didn’t expect the weather to be nice and warm in November, or whatever movie they saw to be the best they saw all year. I wouldn’t say the word “ironic” is the most abused word, but maybe the most overused. Then again, I could just associate myself with a lot of intelligent people that would never make the mistake.

I think “Like” is the most abused word. “It’s a small world” would have to be the most abused phrase. (It’s really not that small. We just can’t live on over 70% of it.)

Using a word incorrectly over time doesn’t “evolve” the word, it’s still wrong. Calling a coincidence ironic doesn’t make it ironic. Someone above used the arguement that when the majority of people use it a certain way, then it is “accepted”. If that were true, then not only would the earth be flat, but the sun would revolve around it (as was the concensus some years ago). The bottom line is that (and I generalizing) most people are lazy, and don’t care if they speak correctly or not.

:0) = clown face

KEC “Besides, using big words is not the equivalent of delivering messages eloquently.”

Yeah, I agree that using pompous words is never equal to one stating an idea smoothly and easy to understand.

The most abused… It’s not even a word… Group of letters is LOL.

I have read posts in different forums similar to “My mom just came home LOL”. Unless she came home wearing a clown suit and juggling badgers, what could possible make you LOL?

Oh, I agree, irony is rarely used correctly.

The problem is that there is no single word that means what most people think ironic means. And that is itself ironic. The players on the stage of the world are judged clueless by the audience of grammarians watching the fools strut about.

I find the misuse of ‘myself’ very irritating. Especially in email correspondence – ie. if you have any questions you may contact myself or some other person…Proper use would be contact me.

Felicity – I think you meant utmost…

Oops, didn’t see Tipo’s comment, the same as mine. Sorry for being redundant…

What a great group of people, those who’ve commented!
What I think: yeah, language has to change – I will let it AS IF. But I’d like to be able to preserve the ability to communicate; to do it elegantly would be terrific!HA.
Ironic – we needed stormy weather yesterday to cover our tracks; instead it’s pouring and blowing today. That’s ironic. And the person who wrote the ‘definer’s’ examples were of sarcasm was right. normaha@pacbell.net

Is this a good example of situational irony?:

In the 1930s and 40s the Nazi party was very active in Germany, and saw the aryan ethnicity as the most ideal. It was ironic that Hitler, the leader of the Nazis at the time, wasn’t even aryan himself.

Felicity, I think perhaps the word you are looking for is “utmost”.
Also, what do you other word lovers think of the common use of “most unique” or “very unique”?

I think the most abused word, right now, is “legit”. Just saying.

I cant belive this wrd has the most duisgusting sentence in the whole wide world [ironic]

I thibk ugly, mad, and hate are abused. I mean, I never even said ironic until now. And this makes ironic, seem like sarcasm. Even if I do abuse ironic, it makes more sense.

Irony is often confused with sarcasm. While the two are similar, in sarcasm there is a stronger intent to ridicule or mock, often harshly or crudely.

What is the difference?If I said: Everyone stay warm. In the winter, and someone replied saying: No… i want to freeze to death. Would that be irony or sarcasm? And people who abuse irony, are using the verbal, or situational version, not dramatic.

The word ironic must be allowed to eveolve. Any attempts to do so attacks the nature of language. There cannot be a movement, or summoning of people that try to change the meaning of word, with the exception of a political change of a word (for example the word Chican by Mexican-Americans or the word Queer by the LGBQT community). The good thing is that the word has already changed in meaning. The moment large populations of people begin to use a word or phrase in a certain way, there is very little ways to stop the process. The writers of this article ask wether we should allow the word to evolve, at the end of the article. That question is deceitful (wether intentional or not) because the word has obviously already evolved; if not, then they would not have even written this article. Many of the people in this forum would not comment on how much they either hate people’s “misusage” or how they “misuse” it themselves. No one is misusing!

There is an entire field of social science called Linguistics that explains the nature and science of languages, if anyone is ever interested in understanding my stance any further. I suggest this especially for the naysayers. Remember that we all knew our language with the need of English class in school–that language is only instrumental in writing, which is a separate phenomenon than language (just try and talk the way you write; it sounds strange most of the time).

this discution reminds me of my own pimary langusge spanish there are only two places that write and speack spanish properly they are or use to be an small town in colombia and guatemala was second.unfortunally not to long ago i went to guatemala and guess what i feel like out of space because they integrate so many words or ebonicks in our spanish language that make so difficult for me to understand what they were talking about. so please people do not damage our englishg language with words that are not worthy to integrate into it remember that when we listening to a language well spoken is like when one listen to our favorite mussic.ironic but true.thanks

I must agree with a number of people who posted a reply giving such examples as “awesome,” “random,” and “epic.” Though I must admit, I do enjoy using those words myself if my coversations.

Also, wouldn’t it be sarcastic to say “I feel like a million bucks” when you have a cold, not ironic? Just saying. It’s not really the most abused word.

But what about the word “love?” That’s a VERY abused word; it’s thrown around so easily as though it has no meaning. “I LOVE your hair!” and “I just LOVE pizza!” are just…. wrong. They’re not “politically correct” so-to-speak. So why make a big deal about “ironic?” I don’t even use the word ironic.
Or for that matter, what about God, or Jesus? Now THAT’s disrespectful to His name. “Oh my God” is not a very nice term. Or combining God with d— or f—. That’s even worse. I mean, how would you feel if I walked around using your name in such an obscene manner? Call me a Jesus freak or whatever else you want, but I have the right to an opinion too. So next to these, “ironic” is not as big of a deal to me.

People here seem to be ignoring the fact that words have multiple definitions. Thus, in the often sited example of the misuse of the word literally, “I literally ate 10 hot dogs” is technically correct.

literal
3. being actually such, without exaggeration or inaccuracy: the literal extermination of a city.

How is using “ironic” wrong when people say ‘grenade” and mean an unattractive person? Is it used icorrectly, is it totally wrong, or is it slang? (but, i do agree that people use ironic wrong. My class learned about it in English and the next day that was the only word coming out of people’s mouth. “she’s in the bathroom. How ironic!….not)

I’d argue that the word ‘literally’ is more commonly overused:
“That session at the gym literally killed me.”
“Yet you live to tell the tale?”

I submit that most misused word in the English language is “literally”, as in “I literally died!”. If used correctly, this will rarely be true. I’m sure everyone who understands the definition of the word can recall examples of its misuse in the place of extremely, practically, virtually, sincerely, etc. In some cases, the misuse of “literally” is ironic. Isn’t that interesting?

Honestly, people use “ironic” way too much. They use it for completely stupid reasons. Such as, I heard someone at school say, “This is ironic. These assignments are way to easy. They should give us harder assignments.” In that sentance, it seemed like sarcasm, NOT ironic/irony……………………………
I just probably have just confused you all. Same here…… Lol. =-)

None of my friends abuse this word. You all need to check your english.

No, the most abused word is UNIQUE.

Ok. People, please. If you are going to post comments on DICTIONARY.COM, please spell your words correctly. Perfect example of something being ironic.

I believe that the post would be helpful to people who don’t know the actual meaning of “irony”. Thank you for your contribution to society!!!! I’m joking, but seriously, people’s ignorance really gets on my nerves.

Just for your information, Maureen, I also think you meant the word “awkward”. Hmmmm….AWKWARD….

I am appropriately chastised for having used “literally” carelessly–but come on, people, it’s not for lack of knowing what the word means. I’m sure I picked it up from someone who lacked something more emphatic than “seriously” (which isn’t very emphatic). So I’ll join those who nominated “literally” as the most abused; “irony” is genuinely misunderstood.

Well, sarcasm has become a synonym for irony, beyond its traditional similarity, at least in the US.

What the US calls sarcasm traditionalists call irony, thus the confusion. It is impossible to distinguish the difference if you are using two different words to describe the same thing.

Also, if “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette is full of examples of what Irony isn’t, then doesn’t that mean that the song is a perfect example of Irony? It would be an implied contradiction, using examples like words to display what irony means despite the fact the examples were wrong.

My english professor told me that it doesn’t matter what the intent of the writer is when it comes to literature because we find hidden meanings anyway, for no discernible purpose. So it doesn’t matter what Ms. Morrisette says her song was.

Clear, concise, and specific definitions never remain untouched. From the books I have read, it’s a popular practice to stretch the definitive boundaries of a word so that vocabulary is less redundant and therefore more varied, or to provide a more colorful picture. This is clear through plenty of the definitions on this very Web site – the first few definitions will be the originally intended meanings, but the last few will be the more generally used ones.

I look towards the “ghetto English” speakers for misused words. I hear kids calling each other “scrubs”. “Flaw” is slightly understandable since it’s used mainly as an insignificant insult, but all you have to do is introduce a word, preferably below seven letters, and someone out there will find a way to twist it so that only the analysts will know what it really means and why it means that.

Most abused word… I can’t point to a specific word. They’re all so… broken now. But, really, Internet/texting acronyms and such truly irritate me to no end.

I have to admit, eridani, I’ve never heard the word “utmost”. I just thought I made up most up. But now I’ll use utmost. thanks ;D

You give three examples for the misuse of the word irony.

And then you state this: Situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.

But isn’t it true that all three of the above examples are outcomes that are very different from what was expected?
You wouldn’t expect to run into a person three times in a single day( if you don’t normally).
You wouldn’t expect a day in November to be such a beautiful warm day (in the northern hemisphere).
You wouldn’t expect it to be the best movie you had seen all year (if it’s previews or buzz made it seem like a bad movie).

So what’s really ironic here? The dictionary.com article on the definition of irony contradicts it’s own examples…

I wouldn’t have expected that at all. But maybe I should.

Well, it looks like the use of the word literally to describe things of a metaphorical nature is… wait for it… Ironic.

Education in the US (and perhaps the world in general) seems to be more about shaping political views of the students rather than instilling a knowledge base and teaching how to think critically and rationally.

No wonder many ‘educated’ persons have so little ‘education’ in things like proper language usage. Ironic, isn’t it?

The second most misused word is “momentarily.” Its true meaning is “for a moment” rather than “from one moment to the next” for which “MOMENTLY” is required. I was therefore, momentarily surprised to learn that ironic is most frequently misused. However, I expect that momently, another contender will emerge.

im so sorry but i think you mean opposite of what is expected. there is no literal meaning to opening your mouth to talk when you are sick, so there can be no opposite.

Irony pretty much just means “on the contrary.” That is just how I always used it. Also a lot of kids around here abuse the word “ignorant” WAY TOO MUCH! They always use it as another word to call someone ‘mean’ or ‘rude’. Like I hear it almost EVERY DAY. I mean is that another meaning to it? Did I miss something??

Grammatical errors (like misuse of ‘myself’) are definitely annoying, but if you think about it, it’s a little hypocritical to complain about language changing. Does anyone who has posted anything here think that all the words in our language have the same meanings as they did 100 years ago? Words changing and being taken away is just part of language.

“literally” & “random” are the most abused / misused words i hear

If we do not look only at the number of degrees that are handed out (since education is not synonymous with degrees) then we can see that the picture changes dramatically and that the US is nowhere near the top.

For the record, the top ten countries with the highest level of literacy are (in order): Vatican City, Andorra, Finland, Greenland, Georgia, Norway, Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.

If one peruses the average user’s English in the comments, they will find out that they are full of serious mistakes; e.g. “it’s” instead of “its” and so forth.

To give my two cents on those who “feel we need to let language evolve no matter how far usage drifts from a precise meaning”, I will simply point out that evolution can also go in a direction that is backwards and perhaps even ‘barbaric’.

In this case, for example, if we do allow the word ‘irony’ to develop a new meaning, it will eventually lose its old one (for ‘coincidence’ and ‘irony’ are two completely different things). Also one wonders what will happen when future generations puzzle over why the Greek word ‘ειρωνεία’ (ei-ro-nia) had been used to give us the word ‘irony’ (in Modern Greek, the word means ‘irony’).

Unfortunately, many people support the belief that we should let language ‘evolve naturally’. However that only makes sense when the majority of the population are well educated, when they can speak the language fluently, when they can spell and when they can read properly. By no means do I consider myself separated from this particular situation: compared to others, my English is extremely poor.

As things stand, many Americans are illiterate.

This is why ‘American English’ began to ‘evolve’ in some strange directions.

For example, the use of ‘honorary’ and ‘honour’ has clearly confused many who decided to spell the word ‘honour’ as ‘honor’ out of ignorance. Yes, it is true that the spelling ‘honor’ is at least as legitimate as that for ‘honour’ but I seriously doubt that the usage became prevalent because people knew the origins of the word. Rather, people could not spell if their life depended on it.

Another example. It is ‘rout’ that rhymes with ‘tout’ and ‘route’ that rhymes with ‘lute’. Some illiterate people began to mispronounce the word ‘route’. The situation has now taken pandemic proportions where even the US President pronounces the word ‘route’ as if it rhymed with ‘lout’.

Now there are other changes that came about more naturally and are part of a natural evolution that is not dependent upon people’s illiteracy or confusion.

For example, let us look at words that end in ‘-ise’ and words that end in ‘-ize’.

The broad rule is that the -ize forms are standard in the US, but that -ise ones are now usual in Britain and the Commonwealth in all but formal writing. For example, all British newspapers use the -ise forms; so do most magazines and most non-academic books published in the UK. However, some British publishers insist on the -ize forms, as do many academic journals and a few other publications. Most British dictionaries quote both forms, but — despite common usage — put the -ize form first.

The original form, taken from Greek via Latin, is -ize. That’s the justification for continuing to spell words that way (it helps that we say the ending with a z sound). Note that even in Greek the letter would have been zeta, which corresponds to z.

American English standardised on the -ize ending when it was universal. However, French verbs from the same Latin and Greek sources all settled on the s form and this has been a powerful influence on British English.

The change by publishers in the UK has happened comparatively recently, only beginning about a century ago (much too recently to influence American spelling), though you can find occasional examples of the -ise form in texts going back to the seventeenth century.

In the particular example of the word ‘ironic’ the influence is related to semantics and not to syntax and therefore the matter is far more serious.

I absolutely hate when people misuse literally. What are they doing by saying: I literally ate 800 slices of pizza today? Is the number exaggeration seriously not enough to make their point? My best friend is extremely guilty of this. Every time she says a number it is not only outrageous, but to make things worse, ‘literally’ comes along with it. Because I go to school with epsilons, I hear literally meaning ‘obviously sarcastic’ every time it is used. The world needs a hero in shiny armor carrying a dictionary.

yea before i read this i had totally confused the word ironic with sarcasm. but now that i have read this i am going to make sure to use the correct and proper definition of the word ironic and irony

I’m so confused.

Couple of my favorite pet peeves – which I don’t believe I have seen posted her yet: decimate (almost always used incorrectly), and the description of almost every activity as “extreme”.

Completely agree with many comments above: the examples you give are not irony, they are sarcasm. Irony, though difficult to describe precisely, refers to an occurrence that has a perverse appropriateness about it. For example, oldmanjarrad wrote above: ‘One day we passed a site where a car had crashed into a billboard about safer driving’. That epitomises irony.

Or, in regard to Alanis Morissette, the fact that she wrote a song entitled ‘Ironic’ that comprised a list of situations that were not in any way ironic was ironic in itself.

By the way, KLabq, you are wrong. Theory refers to an unproven hypothesis; theorem is one that has been proven.

I USED THE WORD IRONIC FOR EVERYTHING LIKE FOR EXAMPLE I LIKE USE IT WHEN I DON’T HAVE MILK IN MY FRIDGE FOR CEREAL, THATS IRONIC AND IM LIKE WOW WHERES MY MILK AND THEN MY CUPBOARD TELLS ME ITS IN MY POCKET! STUPID IRONY

My BFFs use it wrong all the time, but so do I!!!!!!!!!

Let’s say an Olympic swimmer drowns in their bathtub. Would I be correct in referring to that particular situation as “ironic?”

Yeah I’m definatley one to get it cofused with sarcasm….In fact, I don’t think I’ll use this word at all!!!

wow, just had a lecture in english class about irony. what a coincidence.

Personally, I think the word “off” is the most abused word in the English language. It has become more common to use the word “off” when “from” is really what is needed that it drive me nuts!! Everyone, including news people, misuse “off”. We need a few more editors checking the copy that news folks and TV script writers, etc., etc., use nowadays.

I dont think it matters. Let people use it however they want. How ironic is it that i was just looking up the definition of ironic then this came up?

Yes hermione granger hahaha that would be batiuational irony

irony- an unexpected twist or surprise.

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to say “that’s ironic?” | … [...]

The words simple and simplistic are confused by many people. If people checked the meaning of simplistic, they’d be more careful. You can’t stop the evolution of language and meaning (it is inherently unstable), but it is nevertheless worthwhile to plug leaks where you can in the interest of nuance and accuracy. Like Twain said, use the right word instead of its second cousin.

Bleu,

The Earth is a physical object that exists independently of us, and therefore has a shape independently of what we think that shape to be. For meanings of words to be analogous to shapes, they would need to exist independently of what people think the meaning is and how they are used. But how could this be? What makes a word mean one thing rather than another, if it’s not the way people use it?

Could we make a discovery one day, like the discovery that the world is round, that a word meant something quite different to what everyone, ever, thought it meant? Could ‘ironic’ turn out to mean ’strawberry-flavoured’ all along, and everyone here be wrong?

I agree completely. I come to this site more than any site on the internet. I enjoy words too much to not agree. When we have words like bootylicious becoming part of our english I think the idea of letting our language evolve is opinion as far as who is letting it evolve. In any case, I think a good correction on the word is great and encourages clarity

“Literally”, “sarcastic”, and “epic” are definitely pet peeves of mine. But what really makes me cringe is “legit”. I’m in college, and I hear “legit” being abused all over campus. For example, “There’s legit gonna be a hurricane tomorrow,” or, “I like that group; they’re pretty legit.”
I have instructed my closest friends to slap me if they ever hear me use that term.

tpw- I use the word momentarily a lot. I too hate it when people missuse it. It just so happens to be my #1 favorite word

This is not important to me and i dont even use the word ironic when talkinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

I agree with this article. I believe that “sarcasm” is abused almost as frequently as “ironic.” Usually when I encounter someone who get’s these words wrong, they use “ironic” as a replacement for “coincidence” and they use “sarcasm” as a replacement for “ironic.”

Sarcasm is meant to be cruel and hurtful.
Irony means something is really the opposite of what the situation is telling you.
A coincidence is an unexpected, repeated occurrence.

Yea absolutely misused, I often thought that there was another meaning for irony and to tell u the truth I was even scared to use it,however now I know the true meaning to it , thanks DICTIONARY.COM

I’m all for the teaching of literal meaning & practicing & the practising of the proper use of language, but as it is no longer viewed an important element in education we must allow the humans to express themselves in their own manner…example, “we are VERSING that team”. Where did that come from? It’s a Gen Y phenomenon that certainly wasn’t used when I was young. We all know what people mean when using words or phrases incorrectly & we aren’t often conversing with the queen…so does it really matter? What will happen if, in the words of the learned WordPi, our language happens to “go in a direction that is backwards and perhaps even ‘barbaric’”? We will still understand each other. Humans have been grunting commands like cavemen for at least my many years.

The things I love about the multifarious English language are that a fresh “lick” of paint can “bring life” to a room or home. It doesn’t make a “lick” of sense but we understand the meaning; a flickering light or a shopping trolley can “have a mind of it’s own” even though it is simply faulty. Is it correct to say that, “it’s IRONIC how I push the trolley forward & it moves to the left.”? I don’t know & nobody should be overly concerned. Language IS evolving….WORKSHOP….I think you know what I mean. Dictionaries evolve also, diplaying all available meanings for a word. Word meanings will never be lost, only expanded. We can, do & should be allowed to use words & terms creatively, however we best understand them & in a way that conveys our feelings & desires to our fellow humans…without discrimination.

What we should discriminate against are the correct uses of there, their & they’re. Infuriating! This is important & they do teach this in school.

VIVA LA EVOLUTION!

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to … [...]

Good question, does one let language ‘evolve’ and if so how far does one let it do so? How about the word ‘between’? How often do we here phrases like “between all the premier league football teams, 120 goals were scored this weekend”. Wow! So the two teams played out a game with 120 goals (as ‘between’ means two, ‘amongst’ being the correct word for more than two). That’s something like 60 goals each! What a game that must have been!

I have to second the poster citing “awesome” as a more misused/abused word. While I hear “ironic” misused from time to time, I wouldn’t even place it in the Top Twenty Misused Words.

What’s REALLY ironic is this: Romeo sees Juliet dying, thinks, “Oh, my love has died, so I shall, too!” Drink poison. Juliet wakes up, sees Romeo dead, and kills herself. It’s really ironic how they missed each other by just seconds!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ginny Weasley: And you won’t look at any of us!
Harry Potter: It’s you lot who won’t look at me!
Hermione Granger: Maybe you’re taking it in turns to look, and keep missing each other.

You all might like “The Stuff of Thought” by Steven Pinker. It’s a great read on the evolution of words.

Nothing in the English language is abused more than ” ’s ” (apostraphe “s”). I can’t stand reading a menu or seeing a sign saying something as wrong as “Free Taco’s” or “Happy Holiday’s.” It doesn’t make any sense!!

Check it out:
One of the most influential thinkers of our time, Dr. Steven Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best — language and human nature — into his new book on how words can help explain our nature (for example, what swearing reveals about our emotions or what innuendo discloses about relationships). The author of the bestselling books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate (lecture available on DVD), Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even the names we give our babies have important things to say about our relations to our children and society. Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most important people in the world. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of numerous scientific papers and six books.

This is an awesomely perfect description of ironic. Say, would it be ironic if a person who won every eating contest choked to death, would that be ironic?

Pearbru, you are TOTALLY right.

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to say “that’s ironic?” | … [...]

Again, to state that the word unique is misused often ignores the fact that unique has more than one definition.

According to this website, the fifth definition of unique is

“not typical; unusual: She has a very unique smile.”

As we can see from this example, it is perfectly alright to add a qualifier to unique.

So the next time you hear someone use the phrase “most unique”, relax, because they are being grammatically correct (how one determines that something is the most unique is another question)

Opinions, they say, are like anuses. Everyone has one.

The hard thing for me to swallow is the notion that a word that has an origin — a basis in a root or another word that has some functional, rational relation to it — can be corrupted by a majority of ignorance (or ignorants, I’m trying to decide which I like better)… especially when the _opinion_ on the matter has no rational or functional basis. If you want to add a word to the language and you have a reasoned argument for why, then let’s hear it! If you want to add a word or a meaning because the reality of life and/or our experience of it has changed (and I would argue that this occurs far less often that we think), then let’s hear it! But if you want to add a word to the language or change a meaning because you couldn’t spell, pronounce, define or remember the words you were already given, well, that’s democracy. And that’s a whole ‘nother argument.

Should we care? Only if we cherish civilization. Civilization is the struggle against the entropy of nature. It is the creation of order out of chaos; the only reason for it is US. Mankind. The cerebral cortex. Am I saying that civilization is inherently good? Nope. But I, for one, do cherish it.

I’m going to try to put this irony thing to bed, if only for my own satisfaction.

To the best I can express it, irony is when there is a stream of human intent and/or expectation headed one way, when suddenly, doink — something else appears that runs counter to the aforementioned intent or expectation. It could be an action, a statement, a person, an event, an expression, a question, an answer to a question, or in some cases a metaphor… but for some beautiful reason, the dissonance between what we thought was going to be and what actually _is_ strikes an emotional chord in us. (Well, some of us.) Irony is that dissonance, and that chord is why we bother to identify it.

Thus: when some human intends to create less accidents by making a road sign that says “slow down and save lives” and someone goes around a corner too fast and crashes into the sign and dies… that’s ironic.

When Romeo spends 3 months crafting the perfect letter to express his overflowing infatuation for Juliet, and Juliet (who likes Romeo) nonetheless enters into a committed relationship with Ken during that 3 months because in the absence of any communication from Romeo she assumed that he was uninterested in her… that’s ironic.

When an expressly non-violent protest turns violent, that’s ironic.

When a prescription drug causes its user to be more ill than before they started using it, that’s ironic. (Actually, this one is arguable, as it is based on the presumption that the drug company actually intended for the patient to get well…)

If a woman in search of a relationship with a man decides to move to Palm Springs because she hears there are a lot of men there, that too would probably be ironic.

I’m going to sign off now (many are probably saying “thank goodness”), but not before saying that though this is one of my favorite sites, you may not want to assume the correctness of a definition just because you see it here on dictionary.com.

It seems to me that every one of your examples above are situational irony.

“This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.” — situational irony. you expect not to run into the same person 3 times in a day. does coincidence = situational irony?

“Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic.” — situational irony. you expect cold dreary weather in November.

“Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!” — situational irony. i think movies like this are terrible and it’s ironic that this one turns out to be the best so far.

My 87 year old grandmother never flew in a airplane. She was afraid she would die in a plane crash. On Dec, 11th 2004, while walking her dog Giggles, a small two passenger plane flying overhead lost power and crashed 25′ from where she was standing waiting on Giggles to poo. Many said her death was ironic, I just think it was sad.

I see people use ironic incorrectly all the time, I find it annoying. If you don’t know what the word means then use a different word, in my opinion.

Epic is used too much.

I agree with everything, except that I learned that sarcasm is a form of irony intended to hurt others.

I disagree with your definition of irony, although I can’t really give a better one. But I can give examples of irony: 1) A person who devoted her life to dog rescue and humane treatment, is attacked and killed by a vicious dog. 2) The man who invented the method for blood transfusions, died because after being in a car accident, the hospital staff refused to give him a transfusion because he was black. (This was actually proved later to be false, but it was a rumor that went around for a long time.) That would have been ironic, had it been true.

Some of the examples cited above still seems like sarcasm to me, even though they are not vicious, for example, saying it a beautiful day when it’s storming outside.

“Situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.”

Change “expected” to “intended” and then there will be less confusion over the definition of situational irony. Situations that unravel in a way opposite of what’s “expected” lend to the term “coincidence,” like when it is warm in November. Outcomes that are opposite of the intended outcome, like a car running into a billboard promoting safe driving, actually lends to use of the term irony. Since the billboard in fact attempted to prevent car collisions, the car collsion into it contradicts with the intended outcome and thus represents irony.

The most abused word(s) are:

AMAZING Don’t people ever read and understand the true meaning of this word. Amazing! Amazing! – for every possible decription!! It is sickening to listen to all these uneducated idiots.
AWESOME – Once again, read the above.

The dictionary has over 40,000 words, and people use TWO to describe everyday events. What are we paying taxes for schools for, if this is the best we can come up with!

i agree that random, litterally , and legit are abused a lot but i abuse them also, so i shouldn’t talk.
the word that i think is abused the most is epic. everyone says epic meaning “amazing” or “awesome” but it really means “a long narrative poem” or “a long journey”. i hate it when people say “that was so epic!”

I also don’t agree that “ironic” is the most abused and misused word in the English language. It’s ACRONYM. Does anybody even know what a real acronym is these days? Even seemingly expertly published textbooks misuse it, along with every major corporation I know of. People call every set of initials an acronym, when in fact, they are usually just initials or “initializations” if you want to get technical.

An acronym is a WORD (take a moment to process that – it’s actually a WORD!) whose INITIALS mean something. Examples: Scuba = A word whose initials mean “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus”. Radar = RAdio Detecting and Ranging. BASIC programming language – BASIC is an acronym (Beginner’s All-Purpose Instruction Code).

On the other hand, IRS is not an acronym, for example. Nor is NIOSH or OSHA (even though we pronounce them like a word). If a set of initials evolves into a word over time, as scuba and radar have done, they can become an acronym, but just because you can pronounce it doesn’t make it one.

So, I submit “acronym” as the most misunderstood word of all.

Thank you.
I think your expanation is spot-on. Although I think that if one hasn’t paid much attention in ones high school English class it would be easy to get this one wrong.

Could you please do something about the word “ABSOLUTELY”?

Why can’t people just say, “Yes”? It doesn’t even really mean “Yes” but is frequently used as an emphatic to the nth degree affirmative.

Another word seemingly overused is “actually when it is not correcting a misstated fact. ” Actually, I used ironic correctly.”

I agree with all the comments about “literally” being incorrectly used. I think what people could say instead is “virtually”. Example: When I heard the news, I virtually fell over! Unless they really did physically fall over in which case it would be okay to say “I literally fell over.” LOL (Is LOL overused?)

How about “ignorant”. I live in the south and people think ignorance is stupidity. Uh? NO!

Imagine a world where people have no way to coherently express themselves for want of words to intelligently communicate. Therein lies the value of proper word usage and restriction to the given definition. Intelligence can be directly attributed to vocabulary.

Though langauges evolve, a little prescriptivism now and then helps us be more precise, and therefore better communicators. The problem is not that people are using the word “ironic” or others incorrectly, it’s that they can’t be bothered to be more refined and learn their language.

In fairness, I would encourage those who are linguistically adept enough to take interest in this debate to please acknowledge that not everyone has the capability to understand subtleties of language, just as not eveyone can do multivariable calculus. It confuses many people.

As far as my position on the word “ironic” goes, I would encourage enforcement of the definition(s) because it is a technical word. You can’t very well go around saying that a monologue is a poem because they are both long and spoken by one person, likewise, you can’t go around saying that irony is coincidence because they are both unexpected. (Situational (the most abused sense) irony implies that the actual course of events are not only NOT expected, but also OPPOSITE of what is expected, a subtle but important difference.)

If you were learning geology, I doubt very much that your teacher would let you say that “lava” is underground, because it is called “magma” until it surfaces. Learning technical terms (and really meanings of words in general, but particularly terms) is important because if you don’t, you don’t really understand the concepts or processes of what is really going on. Society is in a sad state when people go around speaking, or even listening, impetuously, with a sort of blithe apathy toward their communication toward others.

Seems ironic that those all those might benefit most from this discussion are the ones least likely to be concerned about proper use of language at all. Soon it’ll be a moot point, as the upcoming generation will speak in their own kewl vernacular, and generally won’t bother with words that aren’t easily texted. OMG! LOL. Oops, that should be omg! and lol. As they can’t be bothered with capitalization any longer; too much effort.
If this is a ready outlet for pet peeves, does anyone notice the widespread popularity of the pronuciation of jewelry as jewlery? Women in particular seem to favor this pronuciation.
Is this simply lazy-tongue, or the natural evolution of the language?
I guess it might be a natural progression of nuclear being pronounced nukular..

hmmmm, Eric (dec 6th) wrote that he hates hearing “via” misused, and he provided these examples:

“Please contact me via this account.”
“I’ll be gone via these three days.”

how ironic! everyone knows ‘via’ is Starbucks’ ready brewed instant coffees!

yikes…is that ironic??

I would agree with the assertion that the word ironic might be the most abused word in the English language. However, the way chose to highlight its misuse is a vehicle for misguidance. For example, in the second line where the word ironic was compared to the word coincidence was smart; however, it is ignorant to say that the fact that ironic is used to remark on coincidence is a misuse in itself. It is possible for the word ironic to do so if the coincidence creates tension amongst expected and real results: situational irony. Which brings me to the second example in regards to the beautiful, warm day in November. Irony can also describe something out of the ordinary or unusual if in fact that is an unexpected result and the result occurs. That is another example of situational irony. One should specify to what kind of irony is being written about or spoken of.

I submit that another one of the most abused words in the English language is “the”.

It is ironic that my family was about to buy a goat, then my dog went and attacked my neighbor’s goat. THAT is the right way to put it.

I was irked to see “orientate” incorporated due to its achieving vernacular status. I ALWAYS HATED THAT NON-WORD! Grrr…

Has anyone read “A Good Man is Hard To Find? If you have, remember how that Grandma was so fearful of the misfit, escaped from prison, she actually caused her son-in-law to take a back road short journey that actually led them to a face-off with “The Misfit” who shortly murdered the whole family.
My thinking was that was ironic. I am not too sure.

Wow! There are so many comments I really wanted to read them all, but was impatient to put my 2 cents in.

I agree that the word is misused a lot, however, we must allow some room for words to evolve. As someone commented earlier there is a fine line when the definition of a word has evolved “too far”. I think the word “gay” in particular is a good example of vernacular evolution. The modern usage of “gay” now means “stupid” or “dumb”. I found it so annoying I told my friends I’m going to use it to mean the opposite of it’s modern definition. Ironic?

As long as people understand the connotation and context in which the word is being used I think it’s okay for some words to stray from the original definition. I find double negative portmanteaus (irregardless, misunderstimated) and misspelling of words (“wierd”, “mispell”) more annoying than the misuse of a word from it’s original context.

Epic is currently the most misused and overused word where I live. Everything is “so epic” that the word completely lost all meaning to me. I’m guessing you other people that listed “epic” live somewhere near me. =P

I have only really come across ‘irony’ in the sense of something happening contrary to what was expected. For example, one might say that it was ironic that the Titanic sank when it had less than the necessary number of lifeboatd–the oorganizers being so confident of its success.

But if I were to say ‘what marvellous weather’ when it was stormy, most people would construe my saying that as sarcasm, or as my being ‘droll’. It seems to me that irony is best used to describe instances of what I outlined first. To allow the description of something unusual or coincidental as ‘ironic’ is tantamount to admitting ’should of’ as correct–when clearly it is not!

i could care less

And yes I do realize I frequently misused the contraction “it’s”. It’s just habit of my fingers to place an apostrophe. XD

It’s getting out of hand alright! Just the other day, a friend of mine asked, “May I have another gin and ironic?” I served him a Mickey Finn instead.

I think people use the word “literally” too often.
It literally rained cats and dogs.
I literally screamed my head off.
I literally sneezed my brains out.
etc…
Oh my gosh I hate that so much! It makes me wonder if they even know the meaning of the word.

I do hear “ironic” misused quite often, but I would argue that “sarcasm” and its related forms are way more abused. I constantly hear (or see in writing) people saying that something was sarcasm, when it was really facetiousness.

Wow! I haven’t seen many hot word produce such response.
I think it is important to remember that something ‘ironic’ is conditional; it requires context to provide the reason it is ‘ironic’. In the examples provided, the context is assumed for the misuse of ironic (where it is assumed to mean coincidental) but is provided in the examples (suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.) There is no irony in saying “I feel like a million bucks” when you’re felling really well. (Well, not good – that’s another misused word!)

As to the two examples, as I read them I thought of this for the second – A person takes off every November 15th for 9 years and each are cold and rainy. He works November 15th of the tenth year and says on November 16th “Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic.” In the context provided, it was ironic. As for the first example, “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.” It would be ironic in multiple respects should the person have a restraining order issues against the speaker!

In the example of a wrong use of the word – “Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!” –

Wouldn’t the above fall under other definitions of irony in this website:
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.

Ironically, I’m being so ironic right now.

The coincidence argument isn’t too strong when the third definition at dictionary.com is “coincidental”.

3. coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.

Linda, I don’t agree that your spending time on dictionary.com reading this thread instead of looking for your word is ironic.

It’s just happenstance. However, it made me think that there is more to ‘irony’ than simply something contrary to expectation. Someone said above that humour is an integral part of irony, which I think is true.

We all agree that a firestation catching fire and a life-guard drowning are ironic. But why? Why are those events ironic, but not your looking at this thread contrary to your expectation of looking up a word?

Either it is a case of the fundamental purpose of things being thwarted or mocked in some way–e.g. the Titanic was supposed to be absolutely unsinkable-or it’s a case of whether or not we find apparent contradictions to expectation absurd or amusing.

I contend that it could be ironic if a diabetic person was killed by a truck full of sugar, because sugar was anticipated as a danger in terms his consuming it–not as a crushing weight. It would be MORE ironic if the diabetic were killed by a truck full of insulin as insulin is perceived as a way to sustain life, but that doesn’t rule out the former scenario as ironic.

When the president of Segway falls to his death while riding a Segway, that’s coincidence. If he was the Chief Safety Officer, that would be irony.

And theory/theorem (at least in scientific use) is more like collective/singular — a theory is a body of knowledge composed of various individual principles / theorems. In unscientific/casual use, “theory” means “a guess”, or “something not yet proven”. I don’t think there is a casual use for “theorem”.

Not true, at my school the most overly used word is legit! the word drives me crazy! although i should be happy that people have finally upgraded their vocabulary, i’m not!

I sheerly agree.

Very ironic, Ms. Granger, and I want that essay on Emerald Dragons on my desk no later than Thursday, before the Quidditch match.

@Hermione Granger

Not unless you expect people to swim in their bathtub.

The use of words expressing something other than their literal intention. Now THAT is irony!

Your examples of incorrect usage are weird, and they obviously sound incorrect. It’s definitely the first time I’ve heard such examples. I agree with your assessment. Incorrect usage will not lead to language evolution, so no need to worry.

and all this time I thought sarcasm was a form of humor whereas irony was a twist of fate.

Kudos to Bender for quoting my favorite line in the last episode of the fourth season of Futurama.

Misuse that eliminates expression of an important nuance is not good evolution. Language should support the advance of civilization by giving expression to subtle nuances; when usage seeks to simplify meanings back to primitive thinking, that is DE-evolution.

SUGGESTION FOR YOUR NEXT MISUSED PHRASE: Please address the flagrant misuse of the term “begging the question.” I have heard educated people — and even a reporter on NPR! — use this term to mean “forcing the question.” The correct meaning is more like “presuming the very conclusion that is at question.” Talk about an important nuance! This term describes a serious flaw in logic that people commit all the time in important debates. Logical debate is much better than illogical debate. We need to be able to name the flaw in order to prevent it.

So yeah, irony can be described as ‘mild sarcasm’ but one of the definitions (and the one I like best) is: “an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.” That’s the one where the marathon runner dies of a heart attack (James Fuller Fixx) or the booze drinking cigar smoker lives to a 100 years old (George Burns); or where the prostitute marries Richard Gere (Pretty Woman). That’s what I think of when I think irony. How do you use it the other way? Like “Obama totally deserved the Nobel Peace Prize”? Sounds like ’sarcasm’ to me.

@Jack Shat: As far as the jewlery versus jewelry goes, I would argue that that is just part of the natural evolution of language. We now say the word “bird” instead of “brid”. I doubt you would argue for use of the older form. If you are interested, this process is called metathesis (and I believe I have heard it called transposition before) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_(linguistics).

@Eche: 1) Those examples aren’t necessarily obvious to everyone, some people must be having some trouble or this wouldn’t even be discussed right now. 2)Incorrect usage is the ONLY thing that changes language. If we are to define incorrect usage as using a word that is not standard, or that it is not even used informally, the first time that someone says something incorrect it’s just incorrect. When people repeat it without really knowing which one is correct, it becomes a pet peeve of language enthusiasts and gets articles written about it like this one. When it becomes so widespread that nobody notices or remembers the original form and English teachers don’t care, that is when language evolution occurs. I am very curious as to what you think DOES lead to language evolution.

Irony certainly can be cruel

All my young cousins (and their trying-to-be-hip parents) say everything is AMAZING these days. I ate the most amazing salad. These pants feel amazing. Your hair is amazing. Even my 3 year-old is not so perpetually amazed, and she truly IS amazed by things!

“Incredible” is another one. It’s especially funny when people use it to describe actors, as in: He gave the most incredible performance in that role. Doesn’t that technically mean his performance was not believable, lacking credibility? That’s not a compliment for an actor at all, but they’re all describing each other that way lately.

It reminds me of my friend and her new husband dancing to “I Will Always Love You” at their wedding–a break-up song! Isn’t it ironic? BAAAAhahahaha

[...] Is “ironic” the most abused word in English? When is it correct to … [...]

well, it is of my opinion that language was created and has evolved so that we may communicate with one another. If you wish to discuss whether or not something is being used improperly, I think you should look at it from that stand point. Does the “improper” use of the word ironic lend more insight into what the person is wishing to communicate? When it comes to day to day usages of language, anything and everything is free game. Even a phrase such as “free game”. However, if you are talking about historical documentation or some other permanent attestment to things that have passed, or are passing, then everyday language should be cleaned up. It should be made so that people who require literal translations to piece it all together, can more easily understand the materials. Sanitize the language for future generations to understand, but don’t set yourselves above people who wield their words differently than you.

So many of these posts are deliciously, unintentionally ironic.

I’ve got a problem with “decimate”. While it’s evolved to mean “to destroy a great number or quantity of”, I can’t help but get the root words, and the original Latinate use out of my head.

I demand that we bring “decimate” back to its roots! Any delay will result in me decapitating every 10th toy soldier, doll, or action figure I have!
I have made my demand! Tremble beneath my fiery literalism!

Oh, and how about “so not”? I think this may have started with the TV show Friends, but everyone these days (even my mother!) says things like: That is so not happening. This hairdo is sooo not working for me. What you said was so not cool. Like, oh my Gawd.

It’s been stated previously that language is a fluid. I won’t waste your time reiterating that; however, I found it neccessary to remark on before moving forward. The definition of ironic is obviously so convoluted and murky that even the examples used to help, and I use help loosely, define it cause more confusion rather than clarifying.

Any word that is not actively helping in communication is apparently and inherently flawed. There are two prevalent options for those words here. Either we let it die out the way of many words before it; only to have ironic used by those who fancy themselves intellectuals and the few who could acutally use it. Conversely, we let it adopt a new and not too far off-base meaning and it survives. If you truely love the word ironic so much, or language itself for that matter, that it makes you cringe every time you hear it being ‘abused’ or ‘misused’ think about this: is it better than the alternative. Is it better to have words with inferred meanings, that may or may not be correct, or words with meanings that most people can’t understand. I feel that it’s much better to be communicating with words that are ‘wrong’ than not communicating at all. After all communication is the cornerstone to society.

now i know Alanis had messed up “ironic” all over her hit song. so, what exact word should Alanis use to replace such abused word? somebody clear out the smoke in here?

Considering that people like Sarah Palin can confuse two words–refute and repudiate–neither of which she has more than a vague inkling of understanding of and most likely solely because of her fame is given creedence to her stupidity (by her mistake “refudiate”) by having her word accepted into the “New Oxford American Dictionary” lexicon, I think we should all do our best to preserve the meanings of words that are becoming disgracefully muddled.

And then she invoked Shakespeare to authenticate her ignorance. William, one of the greatest if not greatest literary artist that ever existed, I apologize for everyone that you have to roll over in your grave again.

Most abused word? Like, I don’t think so!!

What Chip says. Basically, I would have said the feeling like a million bucks statement was sarcasm (something us scots are famous for), whereas if you really did feel like a million bucks but had contracted ebola, that would be irony.

Another example – jump out of the path of an approaching train and in so doing jump into the path of another one going the other way.
Give some money to help a beggar & the beggar spends that money on that one cigarette that gives them terminal cancer, that’s irony.
Don’t give some money to help a beggar & they say “thanks for your time”, that’s sarcasm (by the beggar, of course)

My vote goes to “basically”

What bugs me is when people, in writing, refer to words as the words themselves WITHOUT discriminating them from the rest of their text.
Wrong: “I hate when people misuse ironic!”
Right: “I hate when people misuse ‘ironic’!”

This is great, I completely agree. My friends and I fall into an endless rant every time we hear this word misused, which is so often that it’s beggining to consitute a significant portion of our lives. This is clearly not an evolution of language but purely detrimental, the word loses it’s meaning entirely and there is no viable alternative.

I did not read all the comments but I found some of the complaints about other words being “abused” inconsequential compared to this. Such words may have changed context or lost weight but they retain their fundmantal meaning and do not express concepts that are otherwise indescribable. Many people (except perhaps in the UK) have no concept of what irony is.

Situational (dramatic) irony requires more than unexpectedness. There has to be an element of paradox involved so simply meeting someone unexpectedly would not qualify unless, for example, this was somehow caused by an attempt to avoid them.

Should language be allowed to evolve? Language just does. Just as we import and misuse words from other languages – spaghetti and panini are both plurals in Italian but singular in English – we end up doing the same with English words as they move to new users and contexts. The ebst that a dictionary can do is document the changes. Remember King Canute?

My favourite misuse of “irony” is from The Simpsons:

“How ironic. Now he’s blind after a lifetime of being able to see.”

Cracks me up every time

I have been reading the Comments over the past two days and enjoying them immensely. The thorough dissection of a short word and its usage has been entertaining and instructive. I fancy myself a wordsmith, am conservative in my approach to the English language evolution, and I am pleased to read so many contributors have a similar interest in the common bond we identify as language. Note, I use ’similar’, not ‘identical’. I do enjoy the debate.

For those who tire of any overused word, I counsel patience. Such overuse is usually a fad, often driven by our younger citizens who haven’t yet jettisoned their overused herding instinct. Unfortunately for the purist, there will be many fads to come. In my misspent youth, Bitchen was the adjective of choice. Today, Freakin’, Awesome, Totally are some of the most popular. I am particularly struck by the way simple words such as Like and So are currently used. There have been many examples over the years, e.g., Humongous in the ’70’s; I don’t recall hearing Problematic before 1990; until the arrival of the internet, I never heard the phrase On Line applied to waiting in a cue for theater tickets. It was always Waiting IN Line. Oddly, from time to time I find myself seized on a particular word and tend to overuse it because it feels so much more expressive than any other in a particular context. Verbalizing is like that, with its intonations and intrinsic urgency. A fine example is the phrase “That is so not true” as opposed to the simple declarative “That is false.”

Nevertheless, somewhere in all of that is the notion of misuse which provides a level of discomfort for me and tests my civility. Everyone, even the young, has a line of demarcation. The debates in the Comments reflect the idea of a limit, and I am personally encourage that the debate has gone on so long and has such breadth.

I am not overly concerned about the evolution of language. No, I do not see changes in spoken vernacular to be symptomatic of societal decline. I do proffer one caution, however. Skillful and proper use of the written word is paramount. One can readily alter verbal tone and context to fit an audience. The written word, however, does not simply escape on the wings of time as does the spoken word. Western societies long ago recognized the difference between slander and libel when assessing damage each can cause. When writing, one should think of her words and usage being examined by various audiences over an extended period, perhaps generations. Improper grammar and misuse of the written word are sad memorials to the author’s education or lack of attention to detail, or both. That notion includes e-mail, if for no other reason than avoiding bad writing habits. Misuse in texting (another recent word) is exempt for the most part because of the inefficiency of the technology. Telegrams were/are a parallel. Proper use of the written language can be a message in itself.

So, let the debate continue. I will remain interested until my real life once again calls to me.

You do realize that in the definition, ’sarcasm’ is listed as a synonym for irony? And that under the thesaurus entry for irony, sarcasm is listed as the definition? Just pointing that out.

A word misused by a lot of people is ‘literally’ and ‘androygynous’ and ‘ambiguous’.

When it comes to abused words, my pet peeve is the use of “impact” to mean merely “effect” or “consequences”. I wish people would limit use of “impact” to literal or figurative striking together of things, and then, preferably only literal. I might accept a figurative use if the effects referred to were damaging, expensive and injurious (as a car crash). I don’t think that beneficial effects should be described as “impact”, as in for example the good effects of a successful strategy of a charitable or educational organization or effort.

I can see both sides of the argument when it comes to the evolution of language; as a fanatic of words, I am disappointed to see them misused, but as a member of my peer group I find it nearly impossible to communicate with correct usage.
As for the most commonly misused word I’d have to say it’s ‘hard’, which originally described a texture, being used in the place of the word ‘difficult’. This is closely followed by the misuse of ‘dank’ to mean ‘potent’ esp. in the case of marijuana.

I too love discussions like this, although they are of course ultimately futile. If irony has come to mean sarcasm then on one level that’s sad, but there’s nothing that we can do about it. Just being precious about it won’t change it.

But I agree that the ‘true’ meaning should have a twist to it. An ironic statement will turn out to be true but in a way that is very different from the way the speaker envisaged it. The old Shelley Ozymandias poem is the prime example: “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair”. It is linked with the idea of the laughter of the gods, and the warning to be careful what you wish for because the gods might grant your wish.

But I’ll use that as a hook to moan about a couple of other things that get my particular goat and join in with some of the other contributors here and see if anyone agrees.

The first one is the way people label notices as “polite”. So you might have “polite notice: please put all used paper cups in the bin provided.” People seem to think this is a sort of correct formal way of phrasing such a notice but it’s not that at all. It originated back in the 60s and 70s from signs put up by police to stop people parking in certain places. So you had “Police Notice: No parking between 9am and 6pm.” Then what happened was someone had the bright idea of preserving their own parking space outside their house by making a similar notice made up in the same colours and typography to look like a “Police Notice” but in fact headed “Polite Notice”, so that a casual reader would think it was a real “Police Notice” and not park there. But of course there could be no comeback on the originator of the notice because in no way was the notice ever actually claiming to be a notice placed there by the police, it just looked like one. Then gradually as people cottoned on it became less effective, so people stopped using it, and now it survives as this completely useless heading for notices all over the place.

I also have a take on the ‘less’ and ‘fewer’ argument. Yes, the point is taken about individual items, but in certain circumstances it just sounds silly and makes you seem prissy when the meaning is perfectly clear. Thus a few years ago someone pulled M & S up for labelling their fast checkouts “10 items or less”. Being a slightly conservative organisation that cared about such things they spent a lot of money on scrapping the old signs and putting up new ones that said “10 items or fewer” instead. But that just sounds fussy and projects the image of a company run by headmistresses from the 1950s without improving communication at all. For me it’s a bit like the split infinitive – people say that’s wrong even though the only reason it’s wrong is that old grammarians (the headmistresses from the 1950s) believed that English should be constructed as much like the perfect models of Latin and Greek as possible, and that meant you couldn’t split an infinitive because in those languages an infinitive is a single word (amare, to love, donare, to give etc).

But the one that personally annoys me most (although as I say, my moaning about it won’t change the way the language is going) is the fact that everybody (including most BBC presenters) seems to have forgotten that the English language is blessed with a multiplicity of prepositions other than ‘into’. Thus we get “studies into the aetiology of cancer”, “surveys into people’s opinions on capital punishment” and “reports into the motives for the Iraq War”. All of these are technically wrong and sound ugly into the bargain, although I am sure that after a few more years even I won’t notice any more. We should have “studies OF the aetiology of cancer”, Surveys OF people’s opinions” and although we can easily have an “ENQUIRY INTO the motives for the Iraq War”, what would result form such an enquiry would surely be a “Report ON the motives for the Iraq War”.

I could go on but I’d better stop.

I suppose also a lot of modern speech mannerisms render such speculation unnecessary anyway. So you can imagine somebody saying “Hey I just walked into my corner shop and bumped into Mandy Lifeboats who (OK whom if you like) I haven’t seen since I was 10. How ironic is that!”

The answer is classically, of course, “not at all”. But given that the question is clearly rhetorical (as supported by the exclamation mark with which such remarks are usually terminated even though the grammatical construction is interrogative), no answer is required or expected. The ‘queclamation’ can just lay there (as John Major might have said (those of us who know better would of course say “lie there”)) ignored and unanswered.

Okay, this isn’t ironic, but I’m really disturbed by the amount of misspellings in these replies….

I agree about the misuse of “irony”.

I am appalled at the immense misuse of “enormity”.

Years ago a colleague stated that the word sarcasm derives from the Greek and literally meant “to tear flesh.” This has helped me to underrstand the differences between irony and sarcasm,

Gotta love us Aunt Josephines.

The fact that the word irony is used so often is confusing as if everything was ironic, nothing would be ironic. I don’t think the English have the same problem as Americans with this one though. As an Englishman I do believe Britain over uses the word ‘Blatant’, god only knows why people feel the need to say it so often! -and it’s just as bad if not worse than saying Irony at any situation.

Aunt Josephine is a character in ‘The Wide Window’ by Lemony Snicket, in case you were wondering. She was always correcting everyone’s grammar, or telling them they were using a word wrong. An Aunt Josephine is someone who is always correcting people’s grammar.

[...] Does “DONG” actually believe he’s helping the middle class Oi Palloi or is he ironically a Bigger Dick than Dick? — Who is in the barrel and who takes it ‘RECTRIX’ with [...]

“Situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.”
Given the different examples offered (my favorite is the two women in the same outfit), it seems the author’s purpose would have been better served by using “intended” rather than “expected”. I would like to offer 2 more examples:
First: The only real irony in Alanis Morrisset’s song “Ironic” is the fact that she claimed that all her examples were ironic when, in reality, none of them were.
Second: The blog author intended to clear up the meaning of “situational irony”. By saying “different from what’s expected” rather than “different from what was intended”, our author merely muddied the waters… so long as I’m correct in my observation.

Umm…. Hello people. Language evolves. I’m pretty sure that now is about the time for a change in definition of the word ironic. Obviously people call that /\ /\ sarcasm. You know? How do you think Latin changed to Italian, Spanish, French, Portugese, and Romanian? Languages evolve people…. get with the program!

Is it ironic? is it really?

English is not defined by a dictionary, it’s a language of tongue not book, and the english language is subject to evolution. Therefore our language will inevitably change. If we were to talk to someone who speaks in the 17th century dialect, I think a lot of english speakers would be very surprised to find that we speak slang english. Just like the slang english I speak that deviates from the dictionary explanation of the words. Every group has its individual language, like ’sick’ is sometimes meant as admirable, lol, it’s seems like a big change but our younger generation are adding their jargon on top of the jargon that we speak.
There’s no point in altercating with evolution, it’s better to just accept it and move on.

THE TRUE INTENT FOR THE WORD OF THE DAY IS TO ENHANCE OUR LANGUAGE SKILLS, SO WHAT BETTER WAY TO SHOW OFF THE MISUSE OF A WORD IN IT’S PROPER USE. UMMM, IS THAT IRONIC?

I am a Communication Coach and am quite observant about the ‘languages’ used by people around me. I use the word ‘languages’ cause in India (where I live) there are different ‘types’ of English. The most commonly abused words here are ‘awesome’ and ‘literally’ I hate it when people say things like “I literally gave it to her” makes me want to say “How ironic!” Everything is ‘awesome’ here. The chutney, the new cell phone from Nokia. The new shoes I wear!! If I try and correct them they say “Once a coach, always a coach” Which is when I ‘literally’ roll my eyes.

I find it weird how many of you argue about the misuse of the word ironic. Many words from the past have different meanings now. If you look up the word “nice” on this website, the origin of the word it will give a different meaning then for what we use the word as now. Years from now many of our words will probably have a different meaning.

LITERALLY is the one that has been driving me into a rage lately, when used as a superlative. If you are “literally” on fire after eating a hot pepper, you need to Stop, Drop, and Roll!!!

Thanks for making the effort; these days, one sit-com character or misguided athlete/commentator can lead millions astray with one breath.
Some of the smartest individuals I know misuse “peruse” and I’ve recently heard the word “random” used rather randomly.

I like the interpretation and it just made me want to choose my words a little more wisely…the wife who said “oh how funny”…hilarious.

Irreguardless, I learned something new today.

The word should be used as per its actual meaning. The drifting will only help aggravating confusion and dilution of the essence of the language. Hence, I firmly believe the assessment of the word “Ironic” done by you guys is remarkable and I hope to see more such assessments in the future.

Excellent examples of situational irony can be found in many of O. Henry’s short stories. Two notable ones are “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Cop and the Anthem”.

oldmanjarrad wrote: “when i was courting my wife, she continually abused & misused the word ironic…”
__

Thank you for a hilarious story, I can relate! Stopping English language abuse is a debilitating, losing battle. No one cares anymore…

Here’s an abused word for you in today’s American English: “either” in reference to more than two options. It makes me want to scream when I hear someone say, “Well, I can either walk, drive, or take the bus” or, “It’s either the red one, the blue one, or the green one”. I have heard news anchors, people on the street, my friends, even a few teachers use “either” this way, and it grates every nerve in my body every time I hear it. It’s either A, or B; not either A, or B, or C.

Does anyone else get annoyed when people say reiterate. As in, “Do not feed the bears”, “Let me reiterate do not….” You can just say iterate, I have no idea where reiterate came from. I think it was such a popular mistake it became the norm. I apologize if someone had already brought this up, but this blog was too long to wade through on my limited time.

The one that’s been driving me nuts for the past few years: “No problem.” It is not a substitute for “You’re welcome,” and does not mean the same thing!

Keep us on the straight and narrow.

I agree with Mary Monson – ‘awesome’ has to be the most abused word used by Americans.

Also, “He ‘turned round’ and said” – did the person really do a twirl??

I agree with Mary Monson – ‘awesome’ has to be the most abused word used by Americans.

Also, “He ‘turned round’ and said..” – did the person really do a twirl??

I agree with Mary Monson – ‘awesome’ has to be the most abused word used by Americans.

Also, “He ‘turned round’ and said..” – did the person really do a twirl??

While ironic has been abused, for many years, the word that’s becoming just as abused or even more so is “Random”. Drives me crazy when people, 90% girls, say “That’s so random” when clearly what they are referring to isn’t by definition random, but rather a coincidence or has been a favoured selection.

Girls will mention something like, “i went up and just talked to this random guy because he was so hot” .. Obviously this person wasn’t a random selection.

I’m SO confused…the dictionary defines ironic as coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.

Sounds like it is being defined as coincidence.

Perhaps not the most abused word in the English language. I think that would have to be the word “cute”. There must be other descriptive words for attractive items that we can wrap our brains around. Not everything is cute, not even babies! Certainly an elegant & sophisticated decorative item is not CUTE, it is something other. Can we introduce the world to other options?

bej said:
I am appropriately chastised for having used “literally” carelessly–but come on, people, it’s not for lack of knowing what the word means. I’m sure I picked it up from someone who lacked something more emphatic than “seriously” (which isn’t very emphatic). So I’ll join those who nominated “literally” as the most abused; “irony” is genuinely misunderstood.
————
yes!

i agree there is a difference in using a word as slang when you actually know what the word means…as in “dude, that was so totally awesome!” slang keeps our language colorful and interesting. however, it’s a different proposition when people are simply ignorant (as in “lacking in knowledge”) of the proper use and meaning of a word like “irony”, and use it incorrectly.

words like “epic” and “awesome” are used for emphasis; it might be that the frequency of their is diluted, especially since whatever they describe is often quite ordinary. but it’s still possible to use the word meaningfully and correctly. the context in which the word is used makes a difference: “dude, that’s so totally awesome” vs. “i saw an awesome display of lightening last night.” to some degree “awesomeness” is perceptual and unquantifiable, so it’s use is more flexible.

what i do object to are people who ignorantly (yes, i still mean “lacking in knowledge”) use words. you can’t make a word mean something that it just does not, no matter how many times you repeat it. awesome and ignorant work because they are related to the the emotion or quality one is describing, even if they are hyperbole. irony is NOT coincidence, anomaly, or sarcasm. “awesomeness” is subjective and relative. irony is not.

feel free to correct any grammatical and spelling errors i have made.

Irony is a very important perspective to be able to grasp fully for it shows a contrast measurement and ALL contrasting displays details and the fuller momentum within every human situational/circumstantial measurement… to show the more truthful picture! And all irony is a form of the human thought processing “tickle” that is enjoyable as well as entertaining… do you not think so?

Another word commonly misused is “Myself”

This is extremely annoying to me, especially since it’s usually used by important people giving speeches or Lectures.

” If you have any questions or concerns, you can either come speak to Myself or my assistant. ”

No, only you can speak to yourself, i can’t speak to yourself.

Me being the avid gamer i am, I tend to hear the words you, mad, bro, epic, and legit alot.

I teach English Lit and have to distinguish the true meaning of irony for my students EVERY SINGLE SEMESTER.

Best way to do it (and describe sarcasm accurately):

“Imagine your friend tells you about a hot new club opening up. You go, and it’s wall-to-wall people, body odor, $15 drinks and bad music. After a half hour you and your friend leave and soon as you exit the door you turn to your friend and say ‘Well THAT was fun.’” IRONY

“Now Imagine with your next breath you turn and say ‘You’re a genius for picking that club.’” SARCASM

I would have to say that I don’t really hear many people refer to anything as ironic…. I do hear alot of “epic” and “intense”, like, “ooooohhh that was Epic” or “oooohhhhhh that was Intense”. It drives me crazy!!!! One word that I can’t stand is “irregardless”.

“…Do you feel we need to let language evolve no matter how far usage drifts from a precise meaning?”

Do you mean “evolve” in the sense that it is a spontaneous course of events and we can do nothing about it? I would rather say this is not really evolution; this is DNA damage and cancer of the language. Even if we cannot do much, we should resist for as long as possible. Corruption of language is a starting point of disrespect to knowledge, which leads to degradation of education and eventually helps promote general societal ignorance.

Most abused word – UNIQUE. As in “the most unique” or “rather unique” or “very unique”. Yesterday a friend talked about something that was “…unique in a way that was unlike anything else.”

Let’s not confuse teenage vernacular (random, awesome, epic fail, etc.) with real misuse of the language. What I am truly worried about with kids is that almost all of them say “Him and I went to the store” or “Me and her are friends.” And now I am hearing such construction on NPR and the Today show. AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Er, Jason H as far as I’m aware orientate is a word, and for me (a British-English-spelling Australian) the correct one……rather than orient, which is instead a term – albeit somewhat old fashioned – for those parts of the globe to the far east of Europe. 100 times out of 100 I would choose to say I am disorientated, not disoriented….

Well, it’s been an interesting read.

‘Like’ is definitely very overused and unfortunately, I am one of those who overuses it.
So is it ironic that I am going to say now that we should stop using it all the time?

And the meaning of ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ changed over times, didn’t it? ‘That car is SO cool’. Um, no, the sun has really heated it. Touch it and see. But the sentence is right.
And ’she’s so hot’. No, she’s not on fire. But the word is used anyway.

So these words evolved. Maybe ‘irony’ is evolving too?

@Maureen, who wrote:

I think people say “ackward” way too much. Everything is ackward!! Seriously people, find a new word to describe your uncomfortable lives!! So what is the dictionary definition of “ackward”?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Um, “ackward” isn’t a word. Hope I haven’t offended you. How awkward…

One of Alanis Morrisette’s examples of irony was “a traffic jam when you’re already late”.

A clever comedian commented that her example wasn’t ironic.

“But, if you were a traffic planner, on your way to a meeting to present a solution for traffic congestion, but you couldn’t get there because you were stuck in a traffic jam, now THAT would be ironic!”

If something opposite to what you expect happens, that is not irony, it is surprising. It’s warm in November or January, that’s surprising, you jumped from a 20m cliff and did not die, that’s surprising. You and your friend wear the same thing, that’s surprising, you change and wear the same thing again, in my books that’s still surprise.

Saying the opposite of what it is, such as “nice weather” on a grey rainy day, is called sarcasm.

A car crashing into a “drive safely” billboard – that’s ironic! very ironic. I don’t know how to describe it, but surprise is definitely not enough to make something ironic!

It’s subtle. Hopefully, at least in some places in the world, there are enough people who can grasp the subtleties to keep this great word and its meaning alive!

“Do I argree with your assessment?”, you ask. Well I’m just not sure.

Everyone who reads this article needs to check themselves.

i think epic is the most misused word in english, people use it as a form of ‘awesome’ when it actually means ‘long’ do you think edgar allen poe went around saying, ‘dude! i just wrote this totally EPIC poem!!’ nooooo. and literal, thats misused too. but irony? seriously? thats the ONE WORD you thought was misused the MOST?!?!?! i dont no what UR smoking, but come on…. irony?!?

I completely agree with Cici. Epic has turned into a slang word that has been misused and overused. Suddenly EVERYTHING is epic. A perfectly respectable word has become annoying. What’s most annoying is that one day this word will become out of style — so 2010, and to use it in a case where it is needed will sound silly and outdated. I absolutely hate the words “win” and “fail” now for the same reasons. The most overused and often abused words: Epic, Win, Fail, Really, and Seriously. By the way, I am not very adept with the iron. Whenever I plug it in and run it across my clothes, they become lined with large pleated wrinkles. Now THAT’s ironic

TOO DARN LONG!!

please “sarcasmmmmmmmmmm”

“Needless to say…”

Then why say it?

There is a little culprit in our universe that is called a “misunderstood” word. It isn’t one you don’t know, it’s one you think you know but don’t. Most come from words that you learn on your mother’s knee or from other people who don’t know the correct meaning and usage. As a result, we walk around making judgements and drawing conclusions based upon faulty logic. It is a prime reason you see people going around doing some of the goofiest things.

The “word prudes” above are correct in asking that we preserve the correct meaning and definitions of words. It’s far too easy to make changes just because some people don’t understand. It is better to hope that we can actually learn the correct way.

@Chris Ambarian

The ability to differentiate between irony and sarcasm has nothing whatsoever to do with being able to repair a road, maintain a healthy relationship, or be a productive member of society in general. Your assertion is preposterous.

Equally absurd is your suggestion that “Ebonics” (African-American Vernacular English) is a source of peril for “us all.” Is the United Kingdom in mortal danger of losing their integrity and morals because of Cockney Rhyming Slang?

@Caitlin

Since you’re such an energized proponent of correcting people, I thought I’d do the same for you:

1. Louise Monroe really did mean “hep” cat. Hep was probably way before your time (it was before mine, too, but I still know of the word).

2. The irony that you missed in Rob’s tweezer story: The kid ended up being afraid of tweezers, rather than of electricity or of sticking things in wall outlets.

~Saf

hey rdb,I totaly know how you feel. On the sign outside my church, it reads, *Pastor’s Tony & Gwen Brock* the (‘) is unessasary. <- (if that's spelled correctly) It makes it look like Tony belongs to the pastor when he is the pastor

to Patric who said – “‘For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

Or if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.’

99 out of 100 people would call that sarcasm”

And 99% of people would be right, but by definition these are also ironic statement. But, not all sarcasm is ironic. And not all Irony is sarcastic. They are mutually exclusive. This version of irony, as indicated in the article, is when you say the opposite of that which is the truth. And so you are right, but definition that is ALSO the height of sarcasm!

I totally agree JAFO that irony has to have some sort of humorous twist, not just an unexpectedness. I feel your pain Jack Shat. I’ll add to your list of annoying mispronunciations like nukular these gems – supposably, prostrate cancer, viaduck, medium (median) and aks (ask). And I wish people could figure out that “everyday” is an adjective and “every day” are two different words. You brush your teeth every day. You wear everyday clothes. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in my verbal and written annoyances. Go Word Nerds!!

the iron hates me too, epic irony. never in my 13 years of life have I been able to iron my clothes without wetting them up :’ what gives?

I think the most misused word is “brilliant.” It seems that nearly everybody is “brilliant” these days. Well, most everybody is not.

Wrong wrong wrong!
Irony is NOT the same as sarcasm!

The examples such as ‘if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”’

Are pure examples of sarcasm!

THIS is the real mistake most people, too often Americans, make!

Irony is oxymoronic sensation of a situation where something happens despite it being something that doesn’t usually happen in cases like tha. uh..

Perhaps it is best explained using Alanis Morissette’s incorrect application.

One of her lyrics are:
‘It’s like rain, on a wedding day’
Which is purely unfortunately.

However, it might be considered irony if perhaps the people getting married were Weather reporters!

I’m so disappointed in a website as prominent as dictionary.com falling for the same mistakes as the rest of America..

General comments on evolution of words:
RESENT once meant ‘appreciate’.
CLEAVE means both ‘to separate’ and ‘to cling together’.

Well, this article on the misuse of irony has, in an attempt to be witty, incorrectly defined irony. THAT’s ironic.

(It’s also inexcusable, and ludicrously stupid. Sarcasm and irony are different, yes. They are blatantly and absolutely different. Why the talk of subtlety? The examples given are two different forms of sarcasm – it doesn’t have to simply be mocking or cynical to qualify as sarcasm. Irony is taking three years to read a book on speed-reading, or failing to sign up for a course on how to stop procrastinating, due to procrastination. It is dying on the way to a funeral. It is not, however, the insipid exclaming of ‘what glorious weather’ on a dreary day. THAT is the lowest and most obvious form of sarcasm, which really should be rewarded with a punch in the face, or something to that effect.)

I was watching Pawn Stars on History channel today, and i found it ironic that Rick (the bald guy) wanted to buy a wheel chair!

I think it’s ironic that Alanis Morissette wrote a song about irony without having any decent examples of irony in the song. As I understand it irony is not just an opposite outcome but must have a third angle. For example, rain on your wedding day isn’t ironic, but if you were a weatherman getting married then that would be ironic.

barber chair*

You have to give Alanis Morissette some artistic license. Each example in her song is just bad luck, but when you put it all together it’s something else, which is why the CHORUS says it’s “ironic.” She could become sarcastic with all the bad luck but she calls it ironic, which is much more interesting because creative people can see the irony.

Gen. George Patton was killed in a car accident after World War II. Ironic.

I agree with those who say that “literally” is the most abused word. I have to mute television commercials because they misuse it so much. “Your money literally flies right out the door.” I can’t stand it! I don’t mind when my friends misuse words, but it is especially irritating to me when professionals who should know better do so. This includes television news anchors and newspaper reporters and editors these days too. I can’t read our local paper for all the errors it has.

I also agree with those who have assessed “a warm day in November” to be at least somewhat ironic, at least in the northern hemisphere. In addition, the examples given in this article were weak. They were sarcastic irony, but did not, by far, cover the full range of irony.

I agree, I work with a very nice woman who constantly misuses the English language. She will say: “Wow that took me ages to complete that file, how ironic.” I want to tell her that I see no irony in the situation at all, but I don’t want to hurt her feelings.

I understand the definition. I have been chastised many times for my pronunciation of the word irony. I am told it is not I-ron-ee, but I-ern-ee. thoughts?

The phrase that gets under my skin more than anything else is people who say they “could care less” about this or that. I know it’s wrong, but my brain translates that to “I’m an idiot.”

This article reminds me of a game I used to play with friends in high school. We enjoyed trying to convince people that “gullible” was not a real word in the dictionary. You’d be surprised how easy it is.

I wonder if it’s the most mispronounced as well.

I everyone uses it wrong, and conveys information, isn’t the dictionary that is wrong and not th people using it?

A word I’ve heard abused a lot is “legend”, as in “you’re a legend!” One of my flatmates uses it so much, among a load of other over-used words, that I’ve made a list of words she’s not allowed to say until Christmas.

I think I see an etymological connection here:???

In the sense that ‘bespoke’ means previously discussed, this word may come straight from the German: BESPROCHEN.

Wier haben das schon besprochen = we have already discussed this.

Here’s a good one for you, “quid pro quo”. Many, many times have I heard it inserted into sentences, in a seemingly random fashion, by people trying to appear more intelligent.

So this is where all of Wolowizard’s Nerd-dizzle friends congregate online.
So long my schizzles!!
colon hyphen close-paranthesis

Verbal irony is the most often confused with sarcasm. But I think that you can tell if it’s sarcasm if you’re obviously being malicious about it.

The Oatmeal tackles The Three Most Common Uses of Irony:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

#1

Irony has a meaning today that was not presented in the assessment. Probably because it is really hard to define as we currently use it. The reader who commented about a car crashing into a safe driving billboard gave a good example. As currently used “correctly,” that would be an example of irony. It is not mere coincidence, but…again, difficult to define what it is. Examples are about the best way I know to define it.

a really misused phraser is “you know” you know?

@Dan TheMan Who wrote:
“The phrase that gets under my skin more than anything else is people who say they “could care less” about this or that. I know it’s wrong, but my brain translates that to “I’m an idiot.” ”

“I could care less” is technically the right way to say the phrase. When someone says “I COULDN’T care less” It’s like saying, “I care more than less” Which doesn’t really make sense.

Maybe you just had a typo. But I was just pointing that out.
But you probably couldn’t care less.
(:

Just kidding ;P

I read this article and all i could think was how IRONIC hahahahaha I bet a lot of you wanted to right this hahaha I’m funny : ) how IRONIC!!!!!!!!! LMAO

Rachel, thank you for your interpretation of the inaccuracy of “dictionary.com’s” definition of irony. it’s true! The misuse of irony in an article about the misuse of irony in & of itself is ironic. I had been suspicious, and you hit the nail on the head.

tl;dr

But seriously folks, I have my two cents worth to contribute, and I’m just delighted that you’ve read or skipped to the end of the four-hundred-odd comments to read MINE MINE MINE!

I believe one’s use of the word ironic has very much to do with one’s understanding of one’s place in the cosmos. If I remember anything of my high school English, a classical example of tragic irony would be the case of Oedipus, who unbeknownst to himself, marries his own mother and kills his own father, which the gods knew all along would happen and planned the whole time. There is irony inherent in the fact that all our best-laid plans could come to ruin, and that no matter what we do or think or say, nothing will change the course the Fates have planned for us. irony requires at minimum a slightly pessimistic or what is nowadays referred to as a depressive view of reality. When we get a glimpse of our own powerlessness and the sometimes harsh nature of fate, we taste the irony of life. To a father who wants more than anything to bear a son is blessed with twelve daughters, that’s irony. The question to ask in considering whether a situation is ironic or not, is “Would the Greek gods laugh at this situation?” If so, it is ironic. The Greek gods are not concerned with whether someone runs into another person three times in a row. To understand irony requires a certain amount of humility.

For anyone who’s checked, ironically, the definition of irony here on Dictionary.com includes this third definition:
coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.

Resisting the urge to be a sarcastic hater, I will hold my tongue and attempt to contrubute further understanding to the discussion. It seems to me that it is the unfortunate or negative aspect of the cited coincidence that makes it ironic. If it was instead the man that the speaker was destined to marry and live happily with for the rest of her life she wouldn’t correctly use the word ironic to describe the circumstance. Yes, it would be a coincidence (or would it????) but not an ironic one, because the outcome is a positive one. It would be blessed, ordained, or simply lucky depending on your world view.

In the examples cited in the post at the begining of this endless string of comments, the unusually warm day in November would only be ironic if, for example, it was the only day of the month the speaker had to work at the coal mine. The best movie of the year would be ironic if they had dragged their friends to every bad movie that came out, promising them it would be a winner, but to this one they decided to go alone.

“This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.”

Running into the same person three times in a row is a very good example of something that is not ironic because, basically who cares? I believe it is also the quality of this misuse that irritates those for whom irony has real, heartfelt meaning. “Who are you to think this tiny coincidience in your little life has any significance?” would be the Greek gods’ response to the hubris (look it up) evinced (look it up) by this misuse of the word ironic. The answer is only the sound of the wind blowing portentiously.

I alway understood “momentarily” to mean “for a short duration” not “a short time from now” and it drove me crazy to hear so many people use it incorrectly. When did the second meaning become an official dictionary definition?! (Related question: how many people have to use a word wrongly for how long to change the definition?)

hey i laed this in school

To SergioM,

Reiterate means, literally, to iterate again. To iterate means to say. Therefore when one says, “Do not feed the bears, let me reiterate, do not feed the bears” they are correct in that they have said the same thing twice.

Let me reiterate by saying reiterate means, literally, to iterate again. To iterate means to say. Therefore when one says, “Do not feed the bears, let me reiterate, do not feed the bears” they are correct in that they have said the same thing twice.

Actually, T, according to this very website, it can be pronounced either “ahy-ruh-nee” or “ahy-er-nee.”

To B J,

I think the word you’re searching for is “of” not “off”

As I see it, sarcasm is a condescending form and often crude form of irony, typically relying heavily on tone of voice. Verbal irony can be more subtle, isn’t necessarily insulting or negative, and (in my opinion) is usually wittier/more entertaining. Everybody understands sarcasm, but ironic comments seem to be lost on many, many people.

Hey, Ray.
Sanction also means both to approve and to punish.

I submit “pun” as the most misused word. My husband and our housemates all use it repeatedly for any joke, parody, or other form of humor. It drives me nuts. Not to mention the use of “wherefore” to mean “where” when it means “WHY?”.

I think misuse could be avoided if the definition of situational irony were made more stringent. (Note: it isn’t ‘ambiguous’ but rather ‘vague’: ‘ambiguous’ is pretty misused itself!) It isn’t enough for a situation to be contrary to expectation; that expectation has to be backed up by some kind of effort or previous thought! The irony of that warm day in November has to have a contrary antecedant (e.g. “Let’s play volleyball on your birthday.” “No, my birthday’s in November. It’ll be too cold.”) Running into someone three times in a day could be ironic if you’d planned your whole day around not seeing that person; if it’s an inoffensive acquaintance in a small place, we’re not impressed. At the very least there has to be a strong implied societal expectation of a different outcome that conspicuously and precisely misses the mark, such as snow every day in December except on Christmas. In short, modern uses of the word ‘ironic’ make us groan simply because they aren’t interesting enough — the use of a strong word for weak situations (see ‘epic’) dilutes the word.
So remember: three gutter balls from a good bowler is unusual. Three gutter balls from a good bowler playing bumper bowling is ironic.

When I try to ascertain if something is ironic, I always remember the usual crossword clue for irony: “seemingly mocked by fate”. I think this sums it up perfectly. It’s like fate is playing a joke on you or a situation. I don’t feel that the statement “I feel like a million bucks” when you have a cold is ironic.

I think that this word has just changed…I knew (since 6th grade)and know the proper way to use them,I still use them incorrectly. Others would not understand if I used it correctly. Furthermore I think the incorrect versions “evolve” from the “proper” definitions.(Most abused word Evolve,evolution and yes, literally,as in “literally jumping out of my skin”.)
The coincidence, from dramatic irony. For example If we were on stage then the audience would see more which of why we keep bumping into each other even though we are trying to avoid each other.

The situational irony change to “out of the ordinary” use of irony.

Of’coures there are people who are just idiots and use it in a totally different way.

Most misused word. Really. Really? Like Really!! No, Really. Just had to get that out there.

Seinfeld was a TV series overflowing with irony and shallow characters.

One of my favourite shows was when Jerry and George were thought to be gay … “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Jerry and George’s sentiments.

re:Dan TheMan’s comment: People usually use “could care less” when they really mean they “couldn’t care less.” And it’s usually used rudely. So I don’t like it either.

My cousin is a vegetarian(im not cuz i absolutely love bacon)&he has to work in the meat section of where ever he works(idk really).HOW IRONIC!!!! <<I hope i used that right cuz i was to lazy to read the article,i just like commenting random things. tehe

hi say "bacon" if you hate bacon & "chinchilla" if your totally obsessed eith bacon

I think “irregardless” is a very abused word.

^^^when i put “eith” i meant with^^^

I think that “like” is the most missussed word of them all. I’m a freshmen in my high school, and my teachers missused too. They will be giving a lecture and slip the word “Like”, and I”m not going to go on about my fellow classmates!

can’t stand the misuse of “virtually” -virtual is real or actual; it is used as meaning “nearly” or “almost” (“It was virtually impossible to tell who was behind that mask”)

I somewhat agree with Bethany. If something you are talking about is usually totally opposite of what is normal, why isn’t it “ironic”?
Something that really bugs me is the misuse of grammar and punctuation. I have been out of school for sometime now and things are being used as acceptable that were not when I was in school. If we are not going to let words evolve then how can we support activities like texting and twittering. Like some of the people’s replies about misuse of a word were not even written correctly, as in not capitalizing “I”.
I was in an Outback establishment one time. They have coasters that are somewhat humorous most of the time. My personal favorite goes something like this: “2 mch txtng mks 1 bd spllr.”

Refer to definitions below:

“Situational irony is an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.”

Coincidence:
“1. The state or fact of occupying the same relative position or area in space.
2. A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.”

You could argue that a coincidence is an unexpected outcome, and hence situational irony should be considered any unexpected outcome that is NOT also a coincidence

Or alternatively:
You could argue that a coincidence is NOT unexpected since you weren’t expecting anything in the first place. Consider the following example:
1) A man is healty and physically active, so you EXPECT he will not die young of a heart attack. So when he does, there is situational irony.
2) When crossing paths with someone for the first time, you think nothing of it, being of little significance. You don’t permit yourself to EXPECT you will not cross paths again.

I think I’ve figured out why people are so upset about the dilution of ‘irony’.
The definition of irony we get in school is the definition of irony the literary technique. The purpose of all literary techniques is to make stories more interesting/poignant/amusing/dramatic/worthwhile to tell. So although the definition of situational irony technically permits application to any subversion of expectations, it’s implied that ironic occurrences are noteworthy, something you’d consider putting in a story to make people want to read that story.
We could try to pin down irony to a more technical definition, factoring in the certainty and gravity of the expectation, the improbability and precision of the result, maybe the effort put in, but these only take us so far. In fact some things that feel ironic aren’t actually improbable at all. Take the above example of two weather reporters getting rain on their wedding day. Weddings are planned months in advance; meteorological training wouldn’t help a bit. But it still feels just as ironic as a lottery ticket filled with straight zeroes when the winning numbers are straight nines. That’s because the heart of irony isn’t the details of the situation, but rather the little hint that a higher power is making a joke at your expense. Grand irony is marked by not only magnitude but emotional investment.
It was inevitable that the word would fall into overuse as soon as psychologists began holding it up as an example of higher intelligence. But I think our anger at its shift of meaning goes beyond righteous grammar-nazi sensibilities. It’s because, far though it has strayed from its literary beginnings, every use of the word ‘ironic’ carries with it an implicit promise of a tiny, witty narrative about fate, human nature, and the deeper patterns of the universe. But nowadays that promise more often than not falls terribly flat.

People raise holy hell over keeping the English language from degradation of this sort, but really, what does that mean? Does that mean that language slowly decays over time? Because that would mean that the purest, best form of language is caveman grunting, which is absurd. Was there a ‘golden period’ of language that we’re all supposed to be aspiring to? If so, how do you tell when that was? In Shakespearean English to ‘guard’ meant to ‘decorate’ but no one ever runs around complaining that the verb ‘guard’ has been horribly disfigured by the passage of time. Language changes. There’s really nothing anyone can do about it so you might as well stop trying to fight it. That or start talking in Middle English…

Is it ironic that the 2010 Oxford Dictionary calls “refudiate”–heretofore not an accepted English word–its “word of the year?”

Since the meaning of a word is completely arbitrary, it relying on mass acceptance, I would like to change the definition of irony to:

“Tasting, smelling, feeling, sounding, or appearing as of iron.”

It’s used wrong all the time anyway, so let’s just scrap the old definition. It’ll be easier.

@lisa Please look up the words “virtual” and “virtually.”

@everyone Please look up words.

sarcasm |ˈsärˌkazəm|

noun

the USE of IRONY to mock or convey contempt : his voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment. See note at wit .

ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French sarcasme, or via late Latin from late Greek sarkasmos, from Greek sarkazein ‘tear flesh,’ in late Greek ‘gnash the teeth, speak bitterly’ (from sarx, sark- ‘flesh’ ).

So if someone is being sarcastic, they are being ironic, just in a mocking or contemptuous way.

Does that make Murphy’s Law by definition ironic? An example of Murphy’s Law would be if the only time you’ve ever locked your house you lost your key. Seems ironic to me. Can anyone think of an example of Murphy’s Law that isn’t ironic?

It’s true @ dictionary.com.

It’s irritating to me when people use the word “temperature” to mean “fever”. They may ask, “Do you have a temperature?” My reply is invariably, “EVERYBODY has a temperature!”

T. I don’t think you should be taking advice from these people (whoever they are) regarding pronunciation as they are clearly leading you astray…….

“Like” is a severely abused word. I HATE it when people misuse it. For example:
“She was like(25), really mad and then she was like(21) ‘I hate you’ and then she like(25), punched him in the face, so like(25) yea.”

Like is used incorrectly to the point it makes it into the dictionary! It has become so commmon to use the word ‘like’ instead of ‘love’ (I like, like you), in place of the word ’said’(21) (see examplle above), and it is also interjected(25) into sentences where it is not really necessary and makes the user sound more dramatic, and also a bit more stupid. For example:

“so like the dog like ran down like(25), the road, and so like(25), yea.”

A more effective way of saying the same thing: “The dog bolted down the street.”

Note the lack of the word ‘like’. But this use is also in the dictionary!!( The use of multiple punctuations is incorrect, but that is another blog.)
4,5,17,18,21, and 25: all misuses.

like
1. of the same form, appearance, kind, character, amount, etc.: I cannot remember a like instance.

2. corresponding or agreeing in general or in some noticeable respect; similar; analogous: drawing, painting, and like arts.

3. bearing resemblance.

4. Dialect . likely: ‘Tis like that he’s gone mad.

5. Dialect . about: The poor chap seemed like to run away.

–preposition
6. in like manner with; similarly to; in the manner characteristic of: He works like a beaver.

7. resembling (someone or something): He is just like his father. Your necklace is just like mine.

8. characteristic of: It would be like him to forget our appointment.

9. as if there is promise of; indicative of: It looks like rain.

10. as if someone or something gives promise of being: She looks like a good prospect for the job.

11. disposed or inclined to (usually prec. by feel ): to feel like going to bed.

12. similar or comparable to: There is nothing like a cold drink of water when one is thirsty. What was he like?

13. (used correlatively to indicate similarity through relationship): like father, like son.

14. (used to establish an intensifying, often facetious, comparison): sleeping like a log.

15. as; such as: There are numerous hobbies you might enjoy, like photography or painting.

–adverb
16. nearly; closely; approximately: The house is more like 40 than 20 years old.

17. Informal . likely or probably: Like enough he’ll come with us. Like as not her leg is broken.

18. Nonstandard .
a. as it were; in a way; somehow.
b. to a degree; more or less: standing against the wall, looking very tough like.

–conjunction
19. in the same way as; just as; as: It happened like you might expect it would.

20. as if: He acted like he was afraid. The car runs like new.

21. Informal . (used esp. after forms of be to introduce reported speech or thought): She’s like, “I don’t believe it,” and I’m like, “No, it’s true!”

–noun
22. a similar or comparable person or thing, or like persons or things; counterpart, match, or equal (usually prec. by a possessive adjective or the ): No one has seen his like in a long time. Like attracts like.

23. kind; sort; type; ilk (usually prec. by a possessive adjective): I despise moochers and their like.

24. the like, something of a similar nature: They grow oranges, lemons, and the like.

–interjection
25. Informal . (used esp. in speech, often nonvolitionally or habitually, to preface a sentence, to fill a pause, to express uncertainty, or to intensify or neutralize a following adjective): Like, why didn’t you write to me? The music was, like, really great, you know?

—Idioms
26. like anything, Informal . very much; extremely; with great intensity: He wanted like anything to win.

27. like to, South Midland and Southern U.S. was on the verge of or came close to (doing something): The poor kid like to froze. Also, liked to.

28. something like, Informal . something approaching or approximating: It looked something like this.

29. the like / likes of, someone or something similar to; the equal of: I’ve never seen the like of it anywhere.

I am not going to rant about the usage of the word ‘like’ in idioms.
(rant may also be abused)

For those of you that really enjoy using the word ‘like’ incorrectly, see 4,5,17,18,21,25. Try not using the word ‘like’ for an entire day, and see how hard it is.You may find that by trying not to say it, you pay attention to how others are using (or abusing) it. Like is a great word, when used properly! It is diverse enough to be used in most parts of speech, but don’t abuse it.

Don’t let the unfortunate words “ironic” and “literally” become the next “like”.

To angelbot

Thank you! Yours was the first comment I’ve read that articulates what is compelling about this subject. You said what I was trying to, but better. That was awesome, dude or dudette.

I agree with Lemmus. “Less” and “fewer” are so misused it’s almost silly. There’s even one cable tv network whose motto is “More movies, less commercials” instead of “fewer commercials.”

Rule of thumb: When referring to a word that signifies a singular noun, “less” would be appropriate; with multiple items, use “fewer.”

E.g., a tv show might have less of an audience because it has fewer viewers.

Question: When did “I’m like…” come to mean “I said” and “He’s all…” come to mean “He replied…”

“I’m like, ‘What time is it?’ and he’s all, ‘I forgot my watch.’”

In this post:
“Often the word “ironic” is misused to remark on a coincidence, such as “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.”’

dictionary.com definition of ironic:
1. containing or exemplifying irony: an ironic novel; an ironic remark.
2. ironical.
3. coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.

The fact that this happened is ironic? Is that correct?

This artical, (and every other artical I’ve ever seen)doesn’t actually deal with calling things ironic. I talks about ‘verbal irony’ which is just a form of sarcasm, it talks about dramatic irony which is (as far as I can see) just a literary technique, and brushes upon situational irony but doesn’t really cover that, so I stil don’t know what it is.

I’ve never seen an artical that actually gives examples of when it IS correct ot say “that’s ironic.”

you know, having a large vocabulary is a wonderful thing; and using the words correctly is important. when you know many words closely related to each other but with a nuance of difference it really allows you to express your feelings or ideas in specific ways. however, the clarity of your explanation is still dependant on the listeners ability to understand the words that you are using. this is the difference between language and communication. language is great in the classroom and one should absorb all that one can. having a large vocabulary will enrich your life and the lives of those around you. complex words can open your mind to ways of thinking and depth of ideas that simply are undefineable and nebulous without the proper expressions. having said that… communication is conveying ones ideas to another in a way that is simply and quickly uinderstood. let the precise definitions of words be left to the professors and word critics who feel a hard line approach to language must be valiantly enforced. if you know what your friend or partner or even a stranger is trying to tell you then who cares if the words they used were not exactly used in the right way. allow yourself to feel inwardly smug and superior that you understood not only what they were trying to say but also the way they should have said it. besides, life should be fun and using old words in new fun ways is one way we achieve this. also using old words and giving them new and fresh definitions is fun. and yes even making up new words is fun. i mean who doesn’t like words like bling or crunk? so in conclusion, let those who play with language have their fun, let those who have fun learn more about the language, and let us all try listen to what is being cummunicated and not necessarily so much how it is said:)

Allison B:

No, you have it backwards. If you say “I couldn’t care less,” you’re saying that you care absolutely not at all. Because when you have zero amount of care, it’s impossible to care any less than that (there’s no such thing as negative care, as far as I know).

If you say you “could care less,” that indicates that you do care, at least a little, so there’s the possibility of your amount of care decreasing.

I just looked up the word “irony” in your thesaurus and guess what word it uses as the definition of irony??
…. Sarcasm…
Wow guys, next time you might wanna make sure your statements match up with whats already on your site

Allison B, you’ve got it completely the wrong way round. Saying ‘I could care less’ means that you do care a certain amount (i.e. you could care less than you do now, so you care about something at least a little bit). The proper phrase is ‘I couldn’t care less’, which indicates that you literally care about something as little as is possible.

OMG! wanna know something ironic, u r all losers who think about words too much

@Rachel Johns

Sarcasm is a form of irony, but not vice-versa.

@triplem

RIGHT ON!

I consistently read; “it’s just the evolution of language- don’t worry about it”. I think people are ‘up in arms’ about the misuse or ‘abuse’ of irony because it has more to do with devolution than evolution of communication. Why are people confusing the amalgamation or watering down of words and its corresponding idea with the evolution of language? I think Orwell would agree that it’s a slovenly approach. Some words have ‘evolved’ such as ‘cool’ to also mean ‘good’ or ‘hard’ also meaning ‘difficult’ , but these have additive connotations! The common (mis)use of ‘literally’ or ‘ironically’ should, rightly, be seen as devaluing the subtleties of language. At, the same time, I agree that there is much tact involved in correcting someone when they make a ‘flub’.

so sarcastic I LOVE NEW YORK ITS IRONIC

nice, this is a cool article. first i get to know the “real” meaning of the word ironic, second i won’t misuse the word again, and third i will be able to share this cool knowledge!

Please, please, please, please, please, do one on the word “ignorant”. I think that my entire high school uses the word as a replacement for rude. I cannot tell you how mad it makes me.

i think the whole english language is so stupid & messed up

” ironic ”

A singer, writer he cries out to God and just never heard the point to this madness and all that it was is just a tragedy

You guys sounds like pretensious jerks.

‘I’ and ‘proximity’ are my two nominations for the most misused words in the English language. Even professional writers are often redundant (e.g., ‘their destination was in close proximity to the train station’) and otherwise educated people commonly insist with a stern voice and grave countenance that one should have properly said ‘for you an I.’

I’m surprised and disappointed in the direction this article was taken, especially given the definitions that Dictionary.com itself provides for ironic, which explicitly includes “coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.”

How Ironic.

I would have to agree with Lemmus. Words seem to have a meaning for the user, they believe what the want when they say it. But with a little time & research knowledge can be found.

I’m with your Rachel Jones. Hmmmm did this author even LOOK UP the word. No, we do not need to “let language evolve no matter how far usage drifts from a precise meaning.” We do, however, need to KNOW AND UNDERSTAND OUR OWN POSITION BEFORE WE ATTEMPT TO PUBLICLY DEFEND IT!!! REALLY?????

I would love to see a series of stories that explained the correct usage of various misused words. My pet peeve in writing is the misuse of loose / lose. Many others are misused in writing that are not misused in speech. This would make an interesting article thread to me.

The English language suffers great losses of meaning, and therefore, the ability to communicate, by those who are prone to slang, cussing, and uneducated parroting of words they have heard others use, but without the proper understanding of their context.

Slang is intended to create a sub-language with the result of egocentric separation from the masses by those who understand the meaning of the words (the Cool people), from those who don’t (the Lame people).

As with cussing: It requires a teeny-weensy vocabulary in which great volumes of intent are attempted to be conveyed–often with limited success, and to the ultimate effect of appearing to be a mildly educated baboon: “What a fucking sick sunset, dude!”
Translation: “The sunset is awe-inspiring, my friend.”

Proper vocabulary should not seem quaint, yet it has fallen from such a great height, that proper use of it now appears to be an affectation.

Ironically?

By using slang and cussing in place of the actual vocabulary words which were originally intended to convey the very same connotations of speech, often with far greater success, the perpetrators of such substitutions jeopardize their own capacity to communicate with any effectiveness at all.

Loss of vocabulary and the understanding of the finer nuances of words, is an inherent loss of education, and results in the degeneration of both the language and the culture which utilizes it. One’s ability to express themselves clearly, using words that express the subtleties of their meaning, is obviously their opportunity to be clearly understood!

Of course, one assumes that their audience also understands their carefully chosen words, and those very same subtleties of their meaning. If conversing with baboons, it would sadly be more effective to command the lesser vernacular of such beasts.

Like, dude. Get it?

I have a problem with this:

An ironic remark conveys a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning. So, in an ironic statement one thing is said, while another thing is meant.

For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

So if the person meant to say the day was glorious, is it no longer irony? Interestingly, your definition substantiates the aforementioned mis-use of the word irony, in that someone meant to convey coincidence but used the word ironic. Poor example.

“Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It was really ironic.”

Usually, one pictures a day in November to be bleek and cold. Hence, the IRONY of it being beautiful and warm. (Hint: situational irony)
Gr.

Why doesn’t this site post these misused words for us to vote on? I’d be curious about the results.

Is it ironic that on a dictionary website the comments are full of misspellings? Before you complain about others’ abuse of the language, learn to spell.

I completely agree. Though, even I’ve missed used it. I come from the age when words started to be used differently.

Ex.: The words “bad” or “fat”, now being used in the term as meaning “cool”.

But that’s language for you. It changes and words start getting new meanings added to them. Like to say the word “run”, that’s been getting new meanings to for years. That’s just life.

The billboard story told by oldmanjarrad makes me think of the phrase “destiny’s irony” (or “fate’s irony” or “irony of fate”). We have an expression like that in Brazilian Portuguese, my mother tongue.

Sadly, I had a 10th grade teacher who gave us the lyrics to the Alanis song to teach us about irony. Is that situation itself ironic? I still don’t know.

I thought everyone knew they were using literally incorrectly, but used it anyway for emphasis.

Verily, I believe that “literally,” “oblivious,” and “myth” are abused to a greater extent than is “ironic.” People say “literally,” when they mean “actually;” “oblivious,” when they mean “unaware” and “myth,” when they mean “fallacy,” or “rumour.”

Aye, “hopefully,” “decimate” and “but” are all used incorrectly. I think that “but” may be the winner of the Most Abused Word prize. Oft, I see “but” at the beginning of sentences, especially in the [poorly written] newspapers. For the most part, sentences, in newspapers, are incomplete and the word “but” is not the correct word, or not required because the word should have been “however,” “yet,” or, oftentimes, no conjunction should have been used because what came after the “but” had nothing to do with what came before it. “Tantalising” is another favourite of our advertising friends. Aye, terrific should be to terror, as horrific is to horror. Too many of our words are being misappropriated. Many words end up sharing the same meaning and those wonderful words, which carried the meaning, fall into oblivion, giving way to foolish new words, like “incentivise/ incentivize.” What nonsense. Management-speak. I thought that speak was a verb. Is Management-speak not “jargon?”

I think the most abused words are:
‘Like’ Its like, everyone says it like, all the time, and it like, soooo bugs me, like!
‘Epic’ Everything is epic! Eg, ‘that film was epic!’, ‘your new hair is epic!’ GET A DICTIONARY!
‘Seriously’ Like, I was seriously freaked out and then I screamed. Like, seriously. YOU SERIOUSLY SCREAMED!?

OMG i sound like such a moaner!!!!! I need to stop moaning, don’t I? Actually, don’t answer that!!! lol

Precious, you are not alone in being irked by “like.” My nieces must be sticking pins into a voodoo doll of me, because I correct almost every sentence that they utter, such is their use of “like.” “You know” is another inappropriately used expression, which our politicians have taken to saying, in interview and even in Parliament. I heard one M.P. say, repeatedly, “end of.” End of what? People say “indeed,” when they mean “in fact”. If our politicians and newsreaders don’t speak good English, what hope is there for our young people?

The word ‘ironic’ is not only misused in English language, but in many others too. The problem is that people are generally not educated enough, they often do not know the meaning of the concept ‘irony’, and are to lazy to bother looking it up. There are many other examples like this one.
In Serbian language (my mother tongue), people have most problems with conjugating one verb that cannot be conjugated. :S

I love to use this word.

who cares??

My vote is for surreal. People use it when they really mean ‘unreal’ or ‘not particularly possible, all things being equal’ or ‘I can’t think of another word and this one will make me seem smart’.

My top vote for most abused word is “literally,” but “peruse” is a close second. It doesn’t mean to glance through a book, but to read it thoroughly!

I say this word often. Fortunately, I use it correctly.

I think the most abused word is “like”. People will use this word in places it doesn’t have to be. ‘It was, like, so…’ ‘Like, this is…’ Dare I say more?

Where I live, students constantly use “ignorant” for “rude”. I’ve even become sick of the joke,”They’re ignorant of the definition of ignorant.”

I rarely use the word, only when I say something like “Don’t you think that was ironic? They tried to throw a paintball at that guy, and got hit themselves.” I don’t hear many people say “Ironic” where I live. Mostly because I doubt the people in my age group even know the word, or fully understand it.

I don’t think allowing a word to vary so drastically from its original meaning to be a purposeful evolution of language. I can accept expanding the scope of a definition to apply to new situations–for example words used to describe the writings in a book, can be applied to writings on an electronic device. This to me is a meaningful way to allow a language to evolve. Further the combinations of latin roots and foreign words to create entirely new words that will help understand new technology is another way to allow a language to evolve. I cannot find any joy in seeing the word ironic become an antonym of what it once meant. It is then moves from being an evolution of language to the destruction of it.

I’m not a person to get all worked up about prescriptive grammar while conversing in a klatsch. If I can understand what the person is talking about, why would I get worked up on the semantics of a word? Should not the semantics of a word evolve within the society with which it’s in? Do not the syntax, morphology, and lexicography of a language change through time?

“When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature, and clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.”
-Samuel Johnson in Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language (Project Gutenberg)

LITERALLY

I’ve seen it posted a few times, but the overuse and misuse of this word cannot be stressed enough. It figuratively drives me insane.

I have read most of these comments and enjoyed and laughed at many of them – especially the comment by the student who was tempted to throw his desk across the room when his teacher misused the word “ironic”. (Tip to this person: If you haven’t already, you should get used to the fact that there will be many teachers in life who are idiots and/or who will give you bad information.)

Aside from fewer / less, decadence, and, yes, ironic, the grammar / usage mistake that most irritates me is the misuse of the subjective pronoun when the objective is required. (“Mary gave the same gift to both Roger and I.” Or, even worse, “Mary gave the same gift to both he and I.”) Grrrrrr! If students were still required to study Latin, this wouldn’t happen!

Speaking of Latin though, and it pains me to share this, I saw on a Latin blog today that someone had posted, “The singer Enya has sang a few songs in Latin.” Has sang? Please tell me that the forms of the verb “to sing” have not changed while I wasn’t paying attention! I can only hold out hope that it was a typo!

I have a question: what makes a warm day in November not count as a kind of situational irony? Is it because it’s not a sort of “outcome” of something? Would it be ironic if you were planning a bonfire party on that day or something?

It could well be that the usage of the word irony is evolving; only time will tell. Language changes and evolves, sometimes in odd and unexpected ways. If you don’t believe me, consider the original meanings of words like “gay” and “sinister”. Would I be wrong to describe a happy, heterosexual and non-threatening man standing to my left as being a sinister, gay man? Hmmm….

There is much discussion about the warm November day example. It would, I think, be ironic if an article in a dictionary about how to use the word irony, gave examples of the words misuse that were wrong… I mean right… I mean… Oh, you know what I mean. Of course, some would consider any article on the use of English found on an American web site to be ironic, or am I just being sarcastic? We English are good at that.

To me, unexpected weather is not in itself ironic. In fact, using the word unexpected and weather together is almost redundant. However, odd weather may become ironic if there is a reason that it is important. So, a warm and unusually snow free winter month in the mountains north of Vancouver is not, in itself, irony. However, that same weather may well be described as ironic when it happens while the Winter Olympics are taking place there.

What special circumstance is necessary for a “strange coincidence” to become situational irony? You may well ask. Once, I went to a ski resort after a heavy snow storm expecting a fabulous day’s skiing. I was disappointed. The new snow was so deep that they could not run the ski-lifts. Too much snow for a ski slope to open; is that irony? They literally (correct usage) had to dig a trench for the chairs to run in. Later, at the diner in town, I learned that the locals expected the mountain to be closed the day after such a storm. It often happened. So, is it still irony? Was it every ironic? Is irony, like (correct usage) beauty, only in the eye of the beholder? Who knows?

Please explicate for the masses the distinct difference between “nauseate” and “nauseous”. If I am nauseated, I feel sick. If I’m nauseous, I make other people sick. Oh wait, I see Dictionary.com has succumbed to the masses new definition:

nau·seous   /ˈnɔʃəs, -ziəs/ [naw-shuhs, -zee-uhs]
–adjective
1. affected with nausea; nauseated: to feel nauseous.

Now am I nauseated by this? Or nauseous because of it?

To Alanis’ credit, isn’t it ironic that a song about “irony” is really nothing of the sort?

So, on a certain level, the song is correct.

Irony inherently incorporates the notion of opposition, usually of an outcome or event that is the opposite of what was expected. So, in Ed C’s example, yes, it is ironic that one could not ski after it snowed – you would expect that snowfall would be required for skiing, when in fact it precluded it.

In the case of verbal irony, there is also the added layer of unawareness on the part of the speaker. For example, someone stepping out into the street to get around a patch of ice on the sidewalk proclaiming, “Good thing I’m so careful” as he is about to be hit by the bus behind him. The examples given here for verbal irony – “…if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say, ‘What glorious weather!’” and “…if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say, ‘I feel like a million bucks.’” aren’t irony at all, because the speaker KNOWS he is speaking contrary to fact. These are actually sarcastic statements (and no, sarcasm doesn’t necessarily require an intent to be cutting or mean, though it often is used that way – another mistake on the part of the author).

A cool example of the difference between the two happened to me when my boyfriend and I were visiting my sister, who had company over. The bf and I were sitting cheek to cheek in the middle of a six-foot-wide swinging bench, and my sister’s friend asked of us, “Could you sit any closer?” Unsure whether she knew that we were boyfriends, I leaned over to my sister and asked “is she being ironic or sarcastic?” As it turned out, she didn’t know we were boyfriends, so the question was ironic.

As to the most misused word in the English language, and definition drift, what bothers me more than any particular, individuated example is the overall trend I have noticed over the past couple of years towards quantifying superlatives or binaries. This can be summed up by the following example which I literally (yes, literally) hear every day: “We gave it our all, one hundred and ten percent” (or some variant thereof). When did it become necessary to modify “little” with “small”? (“We lived in a small, little house.”) When did sameness require a modifier? (“It’s the exact same thing!”) When did “unique” become no longer unique? (“Wow, that was quite unique, never saw anything like it.”) And when did it become possible to give more than a hundred out of a hundred of anything? In an age of super-sized fries and jumbo shrimp, steroided athletes, and instant gratification, it seems the best is no longer good enough, and the apparent inadequacy of our language’s extant superlatives and binary qualitatives merely reflect the nature of the times….

One more thought on the defining nature of (situational) irony: it isn’t enough that events occur contrary to expectation; there must also be a confounding of some goal or objective that was based on the expected circumstances. For example, it is ironic that Jim Fixx died of a heart attack, both because you would expect that someone so healthy would live longer, and because (one of) the goals of all that exercising was, in fact, to live longer. So, a warm, clear day in November ISN’T ironic, just unusual or unexpected…UNLESS you were, say, a teacher planning a field trip for your entire class to learn about thunderstorms on that November day, and there wound up being not a cloud in the sky….

It is ironic that you use sarcasm in place of irony in a commentary on irony. And what is the epitome of irony is that this way-off-base commentary is @ dictionary.com !!! Before You submit another, you might want to ‘look it up’.

Abby- I loved your comment, and totally agree with everything you said, except this: “Irony is when something unexpected happens.” That isn’t entirely true. It would be unexpected for your aunt who lives 300 miles away to come visit you, but that doesn’t mean it’s ironic. Irony (or at least in the situational sense) is when what happens is the opposite or close to the opposite of what is expected to happen. For example, if two people who have hated each other all their lives end up getting married, that would be ironic; one would expect quite the opposite to happen.
“BTW, I’m in 7th grade.” Awesome, I’m in 9th grade! Power to the young people!

If we can switch the topic to punctuation, I think the comma is the most misused in that department.

“People, do stupid things, they are dumb.”

One day when I was in English lessons, we were being taught about irony, and one of my peers asked: “Is irony when one person walks through a door and exactly five minutes later another person walks through the same door?”… Needless to say, there was some sniggering coming from my table, and not just me either!

I somewhat agree. However, I think it’s most appropriate one and something is extraordinarily unexpected happens. For instance, a father and son in the same prison. I would suggest that is ironic. Tony Dahlin Venice

Although, ironically is misused often, I believe cynic and cynical would either lead in misuse or possibly a close second. When I hear it used incorrectly it makes me shudder. The worst offenders are screenwriters who should know better.I may be using it incorrectly because I think of it is more positive than negative attitude. Then comes comma use. I blow that one from time to time. Tony Dahlin Venice

GP: What you have cited is an example of hypocrisy, not irony.

I have two examples of irony from my own life, and they both deal with medications. The first example is that I was taking antidepressants and decided to stop taking them. Instead of spiraling back down into depression, which would be the expected outcome, I actually entered a state more similar to mania for a few days. Eventually I did return to my depressed baseline, but one would not expect mania after stopping taking antidepressants.

The second example is that taking birth control has killed my sex drive. People take birth control so that they can have sex without worrying about getting pregnant. But if the prescription takes away your sex drive, then you don’t care about having sex. Although, in a way, maybe this isn’t irony because it still has the intended consequence of not getting pregnant if I don’t have sex. Hmmm….

On the sarcasm/irony debate:
As far as I am aware, sarcasm is a type of verbal irony.
Verbal Irony can take many forms when what you are literally saying does not reflect what you actually mean and includes sarcasm (‘what a great day’ when it’s raining and storming), understatements (‘oh it’s just drizzeling lightly’), hyperbole/ exaggeration (‘this is the worst day the world has ever experienced’), and rhetorical questions (isn’t this whether just great?’), and so on.

Not even close! The MOST misused word is alternate. I can’t count the times I see that used on a regular basis in place of the word alternative.

No, I would say the most abused words in the English language are “like”, “go”, and “you know.”

Used improperly:

“go” as in ’said”: And I go, “What was that about?”
“like” as in “And she entered the room, and like, went over to me right away.”

You know: “So the dog, you know, pissed on the tree right in front of me. And, you know, that got me all riled up, and, you know, I just kicked it with my shoe. Next thing, you know, the cops showed up, an’ busted for for animal abuse. I ain’t no animal abuser!”

Fantastic is also misused often. It means “Unusual or odd.” Most people think it means something like awesome.

I find the use of comparative adjectives with absolutes irksome. Example:
“My dress is more unique than the one she’s wearing”. or “It was the most unique movie I’ve seen this year”. “He’s the most perfect boyfriend I’ve ever had”, rather than “the closest to perfect”.
Something that is “unique” is singularly in its class. It can be more or less… it just is.

Sorry, correction to above, It CAN’T be more or less, it just is.

In my opinion language isn’t something that can be controlled by a few, who tell every one else what they can or cant say. if a language does not evolve and change, if it remains inflexible to the constant sociological changes, then it is extinct.

Speaking of “sarcasm,” I know plenty of people who confuse that term as well. If some one was sick and said “I feel like a million bucks” most people I know would say that he or she is being sarcastic.

If a word means whatever one wants it to mean, does it really mean anything at all? How many people have to make the same error before it stops being a mistake and becomes “evolving language?”

The fastest growing misuse of a phrase has to be “begs the question.” People use it all the time when they mean “makes one want to ask the question.” I HATE that! Begging the question happens in an argument when one assumes ones conclusion within one or more of one’s premises. “I know God is real because the bible says so, and I know the bible is true because it is the word of God,” is a true example of begging the question.

If I hear someone conclude anything with “at the end of the day..” I am going to turn my eyelids out and staple them to the back of my head.

The word sarcasm is inaccurately defined here. It is not usually intended to be harsh or cruel, just humorus.

How ironic that a piece about the inaccurate use of a word would have an inaccurate definition of another word in it.

How ironic that after reading piece about how irony should be used, I am still using it incorrectly.

How ironic that even though this piece says the way I am using this term makes no sense, each of my statements make perfect sense.

I find this article ironic, because everyone in my class uses it right all the time at school! And we’re 9th graders!

Melissa,
Quote:
“I have two examples of irony from my own life, and they both deal with medications. The first example is that I was taking antidepressants and decided to stop taking them. Instead of spiraling back down into depression, which would be the expected outcome, I actually entered a state more similar to mania for a few days. Eventually I did return to my depressed baseline, but one would not expect mania after stopping taking antidepressants.”

NO, SADLY, THIS IS NOT AN EXAMPLE OF IRONY, MERELY INDICATIVE OF THE FACT THAT YOU ARE BI-POLAR

The second example is that taking birth control has killed my sex drive. People take birth control so that they can have sex without worrying about getting pregnant. But if the prescription takes away your sex drive, then you don’t care about having sex. Although, in a way, maybe this isn’t irony because it still has the intended consequence of not getting pregnant if I don’t have sex. Hmmm….

DITTO

Awesome…..does anyone really even remember what it means? How can a hamburger be as AWESOME as the sight of an injured soldier taking his first step after rehabilitation? To be awed by something should be a moving experience…..not just to satisfy one’s tastebuds.

Everyone who keeps arguing that those examples “are” situational irony” are proving the point “This third type is the most prone to ambiguity and personal interpretation, setting up the potential for misunderstanding, and misuse.” You all are trying to say that “Coincidence” and “Situational Irony” are the same, which is untrue.

“Coincidence” is “a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected”. So, the first example of misusing “irony”: “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other” is Coincidence – not Situational Irony – since it is an abnormal occurrence and they seem like they are connected, which they are not. You just happened to run into each other three times in the same day, that is all. Situational Irony is “an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected.” When people say “this is third time today we’ve run into each other”, they didn’t expect not to see that person at all that day, and it is not like they haven’t run in to them before, so the fact that they ran into each other three times that day is not ironic. Though it may be abnormal that you ran into each other three times on the same day, it is not a stretch of the imagination in any way. It is very possible, it just may not be a “normal” occurrence. But it isn’t very hard to exceed normal. For example: it may be “normal” that you don’t get calls in the morning, but if one day you get two or three, that can be called “abnormal” so it is a coincidence, but it isn’t situational irony. You may not expect it, but it isn’t “very different from what was expected”. It is very possible to get a call or two in the morning despite not getting them usually.

“Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November.” is also a coincidence. Like I said for the first example, though you may not particularly expect it, it is not a stretch of the imagination. November is an Autumn month, and although Autumn is a season in its own right, in terms of weather – like Autumn’s more colloquial term “Fall” suggests – it is more of a transitional period between Summer and Winter since the temperature “falls” throughout this season. In this transitional season, like with the other transitional season “Spring”, there is a fluctuation in the temperature throughout. So there are varying warm and cold days throughout the season. Although you expect it to be on the cold side in November, since it is the last Autumn month, it is not unheard of to have a warm day in November.

Many of you are trying to argue that ‘Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!” is ironic if you are talking about a movie people said was going to be a bad movie. Although even if you expected it to be a bad movie and it was the best movie you have seen all year, that is not Irony. Although this is an unexpected event it is not impossible. It happened to be the best movie of the year despite you thinking it was gong to be a bad movie, but that is just an interesting fact, not Situational Irony. It is more of a coincidence since it just happened to be your favourite movie of the year despite what you or others thought beforehand.

So, basically, they are seemingly similar ideas, but Coincidence is more of a casual, abnormal occurrence, while Situational Irony is more on the extreme side and is much more common in literature than in speech – if it is even possible in speech. Irony as a whole is much easier to establish in academic written form and occurs more frequently that way, than in casual text, or in speech.

“A cool example of the difference between the two happened to me when my boyfriend and I were visiting my sister, who had company over. The bf and I were sitting cheek to cheek in the middle of a six-foot-wide swinging bench, and my sister’s friend asked of us, “Could you sit any closer?” Unsure whether she knew that we were boyfriends, I leaned over to my sister and asked “is she being ironic or sarcastic?” As it turned out, she didn’t know we were boyfriends, so the question was ironic.” – Erawlins

I am sorry, but this is not irony. Asking “Could you sit any closer?” to two people sitting pressed up to one another even though there is space on either side of them is Sarcasm. It does not matter if she didn’t know you were dating, or not. This question is not ironic, and doesn’t even follow your logic at the beginning of your comment. Your friend KNOWS that you are sitting really close and asks: “Could you sit any closer?” like you are sitting apart from each other, so it is sarcasm. Wether you are boyfriends or not has no relevance to the question she asked. It doesn’t suddenly become irony just because she doesn’t know your dating. It is sarcasm wether she has that information or not.

The most abused word? That is easy…the word “need”. As in “You need to tell me what you were doing last night”. No…I don’t. You may need to know what I was doing but I have no need on any level to tell you that.

It is misused everywhere but it is a personal word. I know what I need. You can’t possibly know what I need unless I tell you. Yet people say it in that tense all the time and it creates confusion when one considers the literal meaning of a sentence. It is in print everywhere in contemporary commercial fiction but the interesting thing is I have been reading classics just to see if it was misused there as well and ta da!!…It wasn’t. My opinion is that this little English grammar problem is a symptom of a bigger societal problem. Everyone seems to know what is best for everyone else but pay too little attention for what is best for themselves.

Anyway, people need to stop misusing this word. (see how stupid that sounds?)

The most abused word? That is easy…the word “need”. As in “You need to tell me what you were doing last night”. No…I don’t. You may need to know what I was doing but I have no need on any level to tell you that.

This may be the most replies for any article Dicionary.com has published.

And How ironic that Maureen would misspell ‘awkward’ so many times in a clumsy way. She must have felt very Ackward when she realised.

It’s ironic that dictionary.com seems to have made the definition of ‘ironic’ less clear than before.

Language and the meanings of words will evolve over time. Period. But it would perhaps be admirable and even practical if language evolved in an intentional or informed way, rather than out of simple ignorance! Ignorance is nothing to be proud of, being haphazard and sloppy by nature, which breeds illogical thinking, which sets people up to being maniplated by those who are smarter and more powerful than they are — a widespread enough phenemenon as it is. The informed use of language, on the other hand, at least cloths society in a certain amount of dignity. It suggests, “we know what we are doing — we are not illiterate. We may decide to flout the rules, alter the facts, but at least we took the time to learn them — just in case they were beneficial.” So, we should accept that language will change because much of the population may not have had the education to know the accepted definitions of the words they are using. But it surely isn’t a virtue. Rather, it is the end result of the random blathering of a large number of people reaching critical mass. And it puts us all in danger of being rhetorically confounded by any stump speaker, demagogue, unscrupulous politician, or marketer that cares to proclaim, falsely, that “x = b.” (BTW, Writers, poets, and academics are classic examples of folks who make words up *professionally* or use well-known words in unconventional ways to achieve a certain effect, and perhaps this effect catches on in contemporary culture and becomes common parlance. Marketers are another, though perhaps more obnoxious and pernicious, example.) Keep your wits about you, people.

Ironic is definitely a misused word, but as a 14-year-old, I hear more of words like “literally” and “legit,” which is short for “legitimate”. A common problem:

“You’re literally hot.” In the dictionary definition of the word, “literal” means taken in its most basic sense, without metaphor or allegory. Therefore, if you say someone is literally hot, people will assume you mean having a high degree of heat. But people who use the phrase mean “hot” as in attractive. Both “literally” and “legit” are improperly used as synonyms for “really” or “very”.

What would be an appropriate replacement for the word “ironic” in most incidents? bizarre? strange? maybe a concatenation of circumstances?

Ultimately, are not words supposed to convey an idea? Is not a language merely a set of words that a group of people use to describe various ideas?

On the other hand, our language is based off of other languages (such as Latin); therefore, they should have set meanings.

So, why not create a new word to describe what most people believe “ironic” means that is based off of root words from Latin or Greek? I don’t know enough of either to have even the slightest idea of what that would be or sound, but it might worth exploring.

The first of these three definitions of irony is inaccurate and is simply describing sarcasm. The two are not simply different in degree. What you attempt to describe as “situational” irony is the closest you come to getting it right. It’s a difficult word to define precisely, but it would still be better if you avoided spreading further misinformation about the word. Especially since the site is holding itself out as a dictionary website!

I was watching an episode of Family Guy a while back. Stewie (from the future. You FG fans know what I’m talkin’ about) got some candles for stress release. The next day, his house set on fire, and one of the firefighters said “Irony!”. I thought it was coincidence, not irony. I do agree that the word is overused, but the American public is just…..i guess going to be the American public.

I am a softskills trainer and I feel a couple of words are actually abused.. literally seriously totally is used in every sentence for no reason at all..

I wonder if you have the stomach for a response to your request for words suffering a similar fate as “ironic”. I know of a word for throat, borrowed from Greece, whose meaning kept migrating to lower and lower body parts. I contend that metamorphosis, though not ironic, bespeaks quite the interesting evolution.

My students use literally, seriously, totally, and like in similar fashions. Because English is ambiguous, computers tend not to be, and I am training them to tend computers, I take their words at face value, and respond accordingly. It becomes a tacit game for them to express correctly. I don’t linger on the game, since it is a computer science class, and not an English class, but “like” quickly disappears from use in my class, since I am extraordinarily good at seeing how one thing can be like another. I acknowledge their statements with “like”, but take it in an opposite direction from what they intended.

i quite honestly agree that this word has been ‘bastardized’ in the American Language. I hear it in virtually every American movie. The word has been so ‘abused’, that it should seek redress in the English Language Court!

It’s one of the most abused words, yes. In my opinion, however, the literal definition of verbal irony has been made obsolete by sarcasm – which is widely recognized – and should be changed to define an event which involves a person or object that possesses characteristics or attributes relevant to the event. Or, more precisely, an event that was caused, directly or indirectly, by a person, but ends up having a negative outcome for that person.

Animal rights activists getting trampled by animals they set free = ironic.

A car crashing into a billboard that promotes safe driving = ironic.

animekiss’s example of Stewie’s house catching on fire after he bought stress release candles is considered ironic in today’s modern definition. A coincidence would be if Stewie had bought a new puppy the day before the fire; the purchasing of the puppy and the burning down of his house are unrelated. It is irony only because of the fact that he bought stress relief candles; even if the candles were not the direct cause of the fire, they employ fire to relieve stress, yet a terribly stressful event involving fire occurred the very day after they were purchased. Thus, irony.

The single most abused word in the English language is ‘ignorant’. Most people, I believe, are ignorant to its rue meaning. All too often I have heard it used in the progressive tense (as my English teacher used to say, “it is like being pregnant; either you are or you aren’t”) and with a meaning more akin to a#@ hole than “lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned”. It drives me nuts. I

I submit the word ‘epic’ as the most abused and overused word.

Random and aspect

Using the word “literally” when figuratively is meant has probably become more abused than “ironic” (also putting words in quotes has become abused but that’s a different subject. Mortified and Vexed are also ofter misused. As for the excuse that language evolves, that’s all it is, an excuse for wretched grammar and ignorance.

I am amazed at how many people use the word “draw” when they mean “drawer”. I see it in “used furniture for sale ads” describing a piece of furniture with “3 draws” or “it has dovetail draws”. I’ve also heard people clearly say “draw” for the word “drawer”. It is an awkward* word to pronounce, perhaps they are just being lazy, but my guess is they don’t know the word “drawer.”

*a word people struggle to spell (see other comments made)

This is in response to the numerous disparaging comments re: Rob’s story about his 4-yr-old son, who stuck a pair of tweezers into an electrical socket.

This is actually quite a nice example of irony; in fact, it’s probably my favorite on this thread. I believe what Rob was trying to express is that one would EXPECT his son to develop a fear of ELECTRICITY; instead, the little guy developed a somewhat irrational (albeit entirely understandable) aversion to TWEEZERS.

Tweezers aren’t particularly dangerous, as a general rule; it was the electrical socket that caused the problem.

So, to everyone who keeps telling Rob that his anecdote is the “opposite” of irony, and “Of Course his son should be afraid of tweezers!” – I would suggest reading his post again.

Then again, there’s words like ‘dude’, that don’t have the same meaning as it did a hundred and something years ago. I wouldn’t stop using this word no matter what it meant then as a greeting to my teenage friends. Slang can be redefine at any time, but let real words be used correctly.

In an interview someone reprimanded Alanis Morissette for “not having any actual ironies in her song.” Her response, “Isn’t it ironic?”

I see a few people mentioned this before me, but, yes, a song titled “Ironic” which does not feature any actual ironies, merely coincidences, is in fact, ironic.

Props to Alanis Morissette for her brilliant song and for confusing the general public.

Without a doubt you are all hot upon the correct answer. However, the

most misused overused and abused word is:iconic.

What I find ironic about this article is that it outlines how “ironic” is misused in language, but then fails to give any examples of how it should be used. Now I’m prepared for the possibility that I have, in fact, used the word wrong in this very comment, but can I really be held accountable when I haven’t been given a clear idea of how I should be using it?

I do see the word “ironic” misused all the time. It is difficult to get by that, of course, but one of the things that I simply cannot get by, is the misuse of the words “barely” and “almost”.

Then the irony running parallel to “Muphry’s” Law, one I love to use.

Another frequently misused word is “awkward”. Perhaps this is just among teenagers, but so often I hear people saying that something is “awkward” when it is in fact simply strange or uncommon. I have to bite my tongue to stop from correcting them and creating a truly awkward moment.

Dress shirts I’d dropped off at a recently opened dry cleaners were actually more wrinkled than when I’d dropped them off ! I asked the owner, “Is this ironic ?” His response to me, “You be sarcastic, mistah?”

Not that anyone will read this far down, but to comment on some of the folks who are frustrated by teenagers’ use of words like epic and awesome, it is key to point out that every generation has a catch phrase. Copacetic was one for a while, the definition being “everything in order” but became synonymous for “alright” or “cool” or anything under the sun. So, there will always be those who incorrectly use words in order to fit them to their own thoughts and ideas. It is up to the grammar and word nazi’s to ensure they protect their own diction and be an example instead of stressing out over other people’s words.

NOBODY CARES!!! the purpos of language is to get ur point accross……i can do that with HAND MOTIONS. so stop arguing about the meaning of the word “irony” and FIX THE ECONOMY before CHINESE ppl take oVER!!

I know it isn’t a word, but “Lol” is way overused on the internet when you think about what it stands for.

anyone ever see the comic where the cat is looking out the window of his house because he sees two trucks that wrecked, one containing rodents, and the other containing flightless birds; they had all escaped from the trucks and the cat was wanting to go get them, but couldn’t because the window was stopping him from doing it. my teacher showed us that picture and told us how and why that was ironic.

Ah, but ‘LOL’ has been entered in the Oxford as a word (only recently)

As and old-timer, I would be less a stickler for holding fast to word usage if the new modifications were not so abundant that I cannot keep up with communications of the younger generations – argh! “What are you saying?” Nay, what am I hearing?

Shoot! I think I misused “ironic” today making a comment on an awful YouTube video where a girl is “teaching” how to act “retarded” (her word, not mine). I said it was possibly the most “ironic” video I ever saw. But if I said it was the most intelligent video I ever saw most people would not know I was being “ironic” from not being able to hear the tone in my voice.
Also, other words that I think are misused and overused are “epic”, “allegedly”, and “apparently”. Apparently is supposed to mean the same as “obviously” but a lot of people use it to mean the same as “vaguely” or “seemingly”. I also hate it when people say “literally” for something that did NOT happen literally, such as “He literally hit the ceiling.” I get this mental picture of a guy jumping up and punching the ceiling with his fist, ha ha!

Poor ‘ironic’! I hate to see things abused, including words. Strangely, ever since I learned the meaning of the word (a few years ago), I have never misused it. To oldmanjarrad (first comment): That’s really funny! I wish something like that would happen to me!

Another word I hate seeing misused is “infamous”. Lots of people seem to think it means “really famous” but it really means being famous for bad or negative reasons, like Hitler or Vlad the Impaler or Paris Hilton.

Is there a reason the metal iron is used in this word?

@ Random Aside: You are absolutely right. Rob’s example of irony in this situation (son and tweezers meet electricity) is apt and I think people need to think a little deeper sometimes to see the irony. There is a good example on TV right now. It is a McDonald’s commercial and a man is eating yet another filet o’ fish sandwich. Two goldfish are speaking to each other in their bowl as they look on and one is scared that the man might be interested in eating them, given his fondness for fish. One goldfish pacifies his partner by explaining that they are lowly goldfish and no one wants to eat them. We then see a cat in the background, obviously plotting a way to eat the goldfish. That’s ‘dramatic irony’ where the audience (tv viewer) is aware of something that other characters (goldfish) are not. This irony creates the humour of the commercial. One of the best examples of situational irony is found in the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. I won’t summarize the story. Those of you who want a clear example of situational irony should read it. There is also an old “Twilight Zone” production of the story on Youtube (but the story is better). Coincidentally, the word I am fed up with (not literally though) is the word “random”. A lot of people overuse it and misuse it. I am NOT suggesting that of you, of course.

Check out the word for today (April Fools Day): gravitas, meaning high seriousness. Whoever chose that word for today has a clear grasp of irony. Funny!

I think “literally” is becoming almost as abused, poor thing. As for the unfortunate situation of the word “irony,” it is natural for a word to, in popular usage, mean the opposite of its academic definition (possibly a case of irony, but I reserve judgment). Usually, when people mistakenly say something is ironic, they actually mean it is apt, or are trying to scramble for an adjective to convey poetic justice. I wonder if the Germans have such an adjective?

Like, Groovy, Great, Awesome, actually.. and many more..i am sure i’ve been ignorantly abusing english words too as a result of learning by doing with english as a foreign language. I am sorta picking up words here and there from adult-natives who are likely to talk more informal and sometimes slangy.. either way, basically i can accept the dynamic of languages until it starts to be a way too much like ‘like’.

IRONICALLY, i can accept that huge social-networking industry like Facebook that come up with their abusive single-option of ‘like’ as responding remark, which is in fact represent pretty varied meanings for the users—based of my own experience.

To me, when i ‘like’ something on FB, it could mean; i like it, thank you, i’ve read your comment but i can’t reply somehow, i want this product!, wow!, agree!, i appreciate your comment, i think so!, that’s good!, thanks for saying that!, thanks for commenting, i appreciate your pop-up here!, etc..

the misuse of “momentarily ” cannot be excused as a teen trend. . I used to be very afraid of flying. When I moved to the USA I was not reassured by the captain that the flight would ” take off momentarily”… I was hoping it would take off and stay in the air for 8 hours !. I was also horrified that even the” English” teacher at my childrens’ school said “you did good” when she obviously meant that they had done well. I found that ironic.

There is no such word as “ackward” (sounds like a cat coughing a hairball)– it’s awkward! And Cat’s Pajamas, word usage IS important. I would never hire someone who misuses “your” and “you’re” and certainly not someone who can’t even be bothered to go beyond “ur.” The ability to string together 6 words to form a coherent sentence is rapidly dying through sheer ignorance and laziness. JFK once said something along the lines of “ignorance will be the downfall of democracy.”

For example, if you were trying to be ironic on a stormy, dreary day, you might say: “What glorious weather!”

Or if you were suffering from a bad cold, you might ironically say: “I feel like a million bucks.”

Although these are ironic sayings, aren’t they facetious as well???

literally is also a well known misused word.

My friends misuse this phrase way too much. Our English teachers shake their heads at them so much I swear their necks are going to snap one day.

@KC, I think you should have your students watch Futurama’s Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Play Things/ S4 E18. By far the best episode of the whole show, and also very educational. Throughout the episode the Robot Devil misuses the word Irony, to which Bender corrects him, and finally when the Robot Devil uses it correctly Bender sings out the definition and states “Now that is irony!” That’s how I learned the definition, and how I quote it back at people.

p.s. Sory my grammar sucks, I went to inner city public school.

While ironic is definitely used incorrectly many times, the most abused word in the English language is either “gay” or “retarded”. So many people misuse that word at my school, it’s not even funny…

1) If you would stick a dagger through the expression “in terms of,” you would be my hero. That would be awesome.

2) Can we please cut short the utterance of “I have to admit” when the thing we are admitting causes no difficulty for us? For example: “I have to admit, this turned out to be a nice day.” Really?! My goodness, that must have been SO difficult for you, having to admit that (… he said, sarcastically.)

3) Finally, please strike out at the villainy of misused “quotation marks.” Advertisements and business signs seem especially prone to this often annoying but occasionally unintentionally humorous attempt to use the old “66 and 99″ as a mark of emphasis where a smarter person might use bold, italics or underlined text instead. A real example: A local bed &linen store advertised (surrounding quotation marks my own) a “sale on 100% pure natural “down” pillows.” Ironically, the quotation marks here suggest that the stuff labeled as “pure and natural” is in fact something other than the real article it proclaims to be.

4) Yeah, the misuse of “literally” is especially repugnant. I have to admit, in terms of “abuse,” this one literally takes the cake. I am not being ironic. I can’t find my cake; have you seen it?

5) “Just kidding.” Ugh.

“Random” and “dude” are used a lot.

The dictionary at this very website gives this as a definition of ironic:
“3. coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.” So, you may use “ironic” in reference to an unexpected coincidence. Or, may you? Or what? I think this word, and the concept it signifies, is not very clear, and that even intelligent and erudite people might disagree on its proper use. So maybe we should go a little easy on those unenlightened souls still caught in the Matrix.

As long as we’re bitching/moaning/griping/complaining about grammatical fingernails-on-a-blackboard, may I submit this for consideration (and I am certainly willing to admit I may be wrong about this): “orientate.” It seems to me to be a spurious creation of a verb from the noun “orientation.” I had always understood the corresponding verb to be “orient,” as in “I was lost in the canyons but was able to orient myself by the North Star, once I found the Big Dipper.”
It would sound weird to make a noun like “oriention” out of “orient.” I’m not sure why the extra syllable was thrown in, but I always understood that when one orients oneself, one then has an orientation. I don’t know what is happening when one orientates. Maybe guides or docents could be called “orientaters,” although that might also refer to Asian potatoes.
I’m willing to be corrected on this matter, although my aversion and teeth-grinding when I hear “orientate” will probably remain active. Hopefully, like Pavlov’s dogs, the response may become extinguished, once the food of my intellectual arrogance is no longer paired with the flashing light of the word “orientate.” I can only hope …

661 comments!! Wow

I know, right?

lmao

While I am “all for” language evolving, I would hope it would evolve in a progressive, useful manner–i.e., make sense? I can see the confusion with “situational irony” and “coincidence.” But then, is not one the same?

Situational irony –> Coincidence… hummm…?? Maybe I need an example of each compared side by side. LITERALLY ha ha…

I think the work THAT is abused in our language. For purposes of writing extensive research papers, yeah it can be a great filler word–fluff up the B.S. But to see it written , even after being EDITED by so called ‘professional researchers/doctors/scientists/well, all kinds of accredited people …’ who know far more than me, if there is one thing I know, it is the word THAT is not usually necessary when it is used.

COMPARE:

I think THAT the word THAT is abused in our language. For purposes of writing extensive research papers that can be fluffed up with this or THAT B.S.– yeah, THAT can be a great filler word. But, to see THAT word written, even after THAT is being EDITED by so called “professionals…” who should know far more than me; one thing THAT I know aside from writing one long a$$ run-on, is THAT you do not have to say THAT word all of the time. THAT is not usually necessary to use, when THAT placement of THAT word THAT is placed and thus, used. =D

At dictionary.com, Ironic is defined as “coincidental; unexpected: It was ironic that I was seated next to my ex-husband at the dinner.”

My idea of ironic is something unexpected and might be funny after the fact, but it isn’t at the time.

Literally. THE most abused, like, literally.

How ironic. I was just thinking of this word.

is it a coincidence that ironic is the most misused word or is It ironic that it is.
it may be the most misused word but it is the fundamental state of the universe. that every dichotomy implies the seed of its opposit. so ingrained that it goes unnoticed until separated when abstracted into words

I think “think” is the most loosely interpreted word and “if” is the longest

viv

That that is, is. That that isn’t, isn’t. isn’t that so?

huh…. how ironic…

viv –
I think that thing that you said about that word “that” is so true that even I use that word too, just as a filler when nothing else seems to work that well. haha! good observation! I agree.

The most overused word in recent years is without a doubt ‘phenomenal’. Anyone who works in an office, or even watches TV will notice how its become the latest buzz word. The meaning, in my opinion has become totally devalued. When someone tells me something I’ve done is “phenomenal,” all I hear is, ‘meh’

One of the words that I feel is overused and misused is “impact”. If two cars run into each other, that is an impact. But if someone said something nice to you and it made you feel good all day long, that is an “effect” or maybe “affect”, but it is not an impact. Also, to carry it further, I’ve heard “impactful” being used many times; I don’t think that is even a word.
I do not think we should let the language evolve.

In my opinion the song “Ironic” entirely contains examples of non-irony. Entirely.

As far as the most abused English word, it is slightly ironic* that a few people have suggested phrases rather than words. I agree “ironic” is widely misused, and so is “literally”. I suspect “actually” is on that list too, but i think the most misused words are likely to be the ones that don’t actually annoy anybody, so we all keep on misusing them, such as “never”. Here’s an example: “I never touched your books” (really? You have *never* touched them? We live in the same house! What you probably mean is that you didn’t move them on this one occasion!) or “I’d never wear that top” (really? Never? What if some guy was about to kill you unless you wore it? How long would your anti-top-wearing principles hold out then? hm?)

You get the idea…

* – (this is ironic because it suggests that while they are capable of understanding the definition of “ironic, which is the English language’s equivalent of the offside rule, they are apparently ambivalent about whether something is a word or a phrase)

Irony has a pretty strict definition, in my eyes, and I only use “irony” when saying that I think someone in a book should know something he doesn’t or react a different way than he did. (“They” is misused, too, taking the place of so many singular nouns. Mabe we could just use “one” or “he”- so much shorter than “he/she” or “that person.”) I never thought to use “ironic” as a word to describe a coincedence. “Irony” has its own purpose as a literary technique. To me, misusing that kind of word is like redefining what it means to use figurative language- if I were to have written a book long, long ago and then died, today, if I were brought back to life, I would try to correct anyone who misunderstands what was meant to be ironic and what was meant to be sarcastic.

Okay, since this is still active, I have to toss in my biggest pet peeves.
Number one is still “irregardless.” Call me old fashioned, but while two wrongs do not make a right, two negatives do result in a positive. I appreciate that the word has appeared in dictionaries of “modern usage” but hope that it remains classified as slang.
Number two is not quite so clear to some. “One of the only” I believe this falls in with “unique.” Unique was mentioned earlier in this thread as having been watered down from its true meaning of being, well, unique. A singular item without equal. Likewise, either something is “the only” example or “one of a few” examples.
I’ve read an argument by an alleged educated individual (I confess to not going so far as to verify their claimed credentials) arguing why it is an acceptable phrase. I felt that their logic was horribly flawed.
Yes, language evolves. And certainly the young will always hijack words into their own generational jargon in an effort to feel different than their parents, however, words have meaning. Allowing these meanings to become vague or overly adaptable opens the door to chaos. I have no problem with a text message that reads “u no I luv u” so long as the sender and receiver recognize that this is a convenient way to communicate “You know that I love you.” Otherwise, we are speeding down the road to Orwellian Newspeak, and the death of effective communication. (Side note: if we are going to evolve the English language, for goodness sake, could we PLEASE consider simplifying our spelling. Adopting words from foreign or archaic languages is all well and good, but must we learn new spelling techniques each time we do? (Techniques is a perfect example.) Having learned to read in the 70s, the mere notion of teaching someone to read English phonetically is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever encountered. If anything, it should be spelled “fonetikly.” I will stop here, because if I get started on hard and soft “c” sounds being redundant of existing letters, well, you can see where that would lead.

Unfortunately, I see no way to edit my post, so want to share that I recognize my misuse of jargon when I meant lexicon. Also, I am still a bit soft on this, which is why I started reading this page in the first place, but is the spelling of the word phonetics ironic?

I believe that purposefully using a word for a different meaning is different than accidentally using a word for the wrong meaning. Purposefully using a word for a different meaning is slang, whereas accidentally using a word incorrectly is simply misuse. For example, the word “epic” has shifted towards slang, because it is consciously used as a synonym for “awesome”, however, use of the word “ironic” has become, for the most part, misuse. “Ironic” is misused because people generally have a misunderstanding of the definition, believing that it means something more along the lines of “coincidental”. I believe that the most highly misused words are “ironic” as well as “literally”. This is only in my opinion, however.

ALthough the word “ironic” tends to be butchered quite frequently, I don’t beleive it is the word that is so called used so wrongly. However, the words epic and like are in almost every sentence nowadays…

As an amateur writer I am always interested in the correct usage and pronunciation of a word. I find it ironic that an amateur such as myself will research such things while a pro, as mentioned in the article, will misuse a word like ‘ironic’. Although it may not be popular to bring it up but another example of professionals butchering the English language is the way our previous president mispronounced a word that really bothers me, especially since I work in the nuclear industry. In his defense it is a commonly mispronounced word, but in his case he was the man with his finger on the button yet he could not pronounce the word NUCLEAR. It’s NU-CLE-AR not NU-CU-LAR! Ok, I feel better now.

What is confusing is the offer to leave it alone or try to keep making corrections.

As a child and in grade school I remember a teacher chastising a fellow student on the abbreviation of street, as the child gave it the same abbreviation as that for saint. The teacher made the point that if street was abbreviated the same as saint how would a person be able to tell the difference.

Case and point is today street is NO different and the internet will bare this out. I was taught street was str. an Saint was St., think I am kidding, even now as I write the str. abbreviation it is being shown misspelled. So on that point as people become lazier and want to dummy down the education system because it is so hard and labor intensive to add a letter to justify the meaning and differences between words.

What is next the letter “s” because the content of the sentence is there and you should be able to read my mind.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: “Do you agree with our assessment, or do you feel we need to let language evolve no matter how far usage drifts from a precise meaning?”

RESPONSE: To let language evolve in that way, makes the dictionary useless and meaningless. In other words, just use whatever words you want and let them mean whatever you want them to and you end up with any word meaning any thing and then how do you have a conversation with anyone?

So the problem is, how could we understand each other? How would I know you’re using the word “door” to mean “car”? After hearing about how you drove your new door, I’m just going to be confused, is all.

Now I realize that many people will want to respond and say; “But I’m not talking about going that far!”. Maybe not, but that’s where it will end up.

1) Who gets to decide how far is too far?

2) How are you going to monitor and reign it in when it goes too far?

3) Once you have changed what certain words mean, that is now their new meaning and that then becomes your starting point for the next change. In other words, here we are now, as proof!

What happened to school? You remember! It was that place where they taught you what words mean and then you used them in that way, to mean that thing?

“Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!” If such statements are really made to imply interest, that is just sad. But I would argue that this might not be the intent of the statement. If I say,
“So I’ve been to the theater 6 times this year, and each time, the plot sounded so interesting, that I expected it to be great. I was disappointed each time. Then yesterday, a friend invited me to see a movie. It sounded uninteresting, and I only went so that I could spend time with my friend. Ironically, it was the best movie I’ve seen all year!”
Would this not be situational irony? Could it be that the person who overhears this quote as he/she walks by, or who has joined the conversation, but is not the target of this particular comment, misinterprets it to be a statement of interest? Is it possible that the person who is being spoken to most likely understands the context- based either on the current conversation as a whole, or on previous discussions and knowing each other well enough to leave out the explanation?

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
There are kids at my school who abuse “just kidding”. I mean, they torture the poor thing. Sometimes they put it in place of “never mind” and other times they just use it to fill in space.

I think FANTASTIC, and LITERALLY are very misused. And get very annoyed when people share their condolences with “Im sorry for your LOST”….This drives me up the wall.

Quick story! please dont give up and read all the way!

This reminds me of a friend of mine, who got so annoyed when people made these type of errors. Worst of all , she never missed the opportunity to stop people dead in their tracks, in the middle of their sentence to say, “ugghh, its not such and such….” then proceeded to make the correction. While i find it annoying myself when people pronounce words incorrectly (as opposed to misusing a word like in this thread), i dont find it necessary to correct someone if they are in the middle of say a funny story or quote. Specially if this someone is not the average Idiot we are forced to either work with, or go to school with. Smh….so when she did it to MEEEE, naturally, I was borderline offended. Not because she corrected me, but because she was so quick to be that obnoxious, “i think i am too smart for everyone” PRICK, that it didnt occur to her that, I might just know the proper way to spell Supposedly is not “supposibly”. and for the sake of the funny story i was in the middle of telling her, WHO THE HELL CARES!! i dont know whats worse, the fact that she pulled that little annoying “Correction” stint on me, or that she actually thought I would make that kind of ridiculous mistake. I figured one day I would stumble on the opportunity to show her that even the smarterst people dont know EVERYTHING, and that one should be open to being wrong once in a while, no matter how smart you think you are. little did i know, that id get my chance so soon, or that she would make it so easy for me. In the middle of a SERIOUS convo not much later (weeks maybe months), she actually thought “asymmetrical” meant that both sides are equal (in other words, the opposite of its meaning)…so i quickly stopped her and said, “you mean symmetrical?” and she, looking at me funny. said..its “asymmetrical”…..I was like uh huh….wow, really?!? and where would you leave the word “symmetrical”?!! she even had the nerve to say I was wrong. (i guess she wasnt my friend after all, huh, given she’s made it very clear on both occasions, that she thinks im some kind of an idiot) she wouldnt even take my word for it. that lord forbid she was wrong. I asked, how did she figure that “asymmetrical” meant equal on both sides, and she said, she thought people used the word “A” in front of “symmetrical” to emphasize that that it means same on both sides, as though you were to take that capital letter A and split it in half…..i coudnt believe what i had just heard….and even then, she STILL thought i was making it up to make her look silly weeks later, as revenge…..wow!….sometimes, you gotta know when to relax and when to be annoyed. I mean really?!?!? I hate when people make simple grammatical errors, but am i really gonna make it a point to write this long response you have just read, with proper structure, sentences, words, and grammar?!?!?! no! this is not a presidential speech!! p.s- you better believe I made sure she learned her lesson for weeks…haha!! – Cheers guys, hope you like my story…

Ignorant. I have never heard anyone abuse any word that bad. Everyday at school, I can’t go by without hearing someone say ‘Tch, you is ignorant.’
:I
One example is when we were informed that we weren’t allowed to have holes in our jeans at school because it was inappropriate, a girl yelled out, ‘That’s ignorant!’ In reality the people using the word so much are the ignorant ones.

I usually take such a rigid stance on these matters, and the misuse of the word irony drives me especially bananas, but it seems to me that language is essentially a tool. If more people use a tool in a certain way than how it was originally intended, shouldn’t it be allowed to evolve? We, as the users, create and use language. It is, therefore, ours to manipulate.

i agree completely with this1 there are lots of words that people just use to make themselves seem smarter, when in reality, the don’t know what they’re saying, so they look even stupider!

Everyone is talking about abused words, but I feel so sorry for “legitimate”! Being chopped into “legit” like no one cares about the rest of the word……ARGH.

I can think up of a lot of misused words:

-like
-epic
-awesome
-literally
-ironic (duh…)

Dictionary.com, a warm day in November is pretty normal in some places. Try using a different example instead.

Yeah, I think a lot of times people confuse irony with oxymoron, like a couple examples mentioned in this article… If 2 things occur in the same instance that sorta contradict each other (such as a firetruck on fire) someone might mistakenly say it’s “ironic”.

Only joking-I mean, what a coincidence.
Yes, I know, that word has been completely missused, {:-(} had I ever heard someone misuse that word I would give them a telling off!

@maureen..
i think the word you are looking for is AWKWARD! not ackward. you sound dumb.

How about ‘epic’?

Okay, I don’t really care much about how to use the word as much as SOME people, but still, I believe Dictionary has a great point. People misuse a TON of words. I might have misused one too. But, I do believe that Dictionary, and SOME people make a way-too-big-of-a-deal of misusing a commonly used word. (rolls eyes) I HATE these words that people overuse and think is cool:
-ironic
-epic
-duh
-oh wow…
-literally

@Brenda
Wow… loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong story, girl! Grammatical errors are okay with me, but I don’t get annoyed much, or correct a person, because it is as rude as… that “friend” of yours, he-he. XOXO

@oldmanjarrad – I am still laughing!

What about ‘literally’? On this one reality show, some lady said “I. Literally. Died.”

She didn’t.

No. Ironic is a frozen meat truck hitting a cow…

what about Socratic Irony? >;)

Your definition of situational irony is exactly what your 3rd example of misuse of the word describes. (i.e. summer weather in november IS ironic as the summer weather is very different from what was expected). Without specific definitions language itself ceases to exist. You can see this ocurring (or evolving) throughout the 20th century, meanings are sliding and changing…. it’s a symptom of mass culture becoming dissociative. And why? Because we keep feeding ourselves the illusion that civilization is progress, trying to con ourselves into still helping everyone else before our individual self, when the fact remains that the world in the 20th century is more out of balance than ever before in history, and due to the laws that govern the universe (ie physics, chemistry, etc), mother nature will move toward balance and destroy mankinds’ foolish creations… and possible mankind itself… and we’ll all think it’s bad until we’re in that situation and there’s only 50,000 of us instead of 8,000,000,000 and those 50,000 will experience a liberty and freedom unfathomable to us in the 20th and 21st century.

How ironic.

I don’t know if this “ironic”, or really even has anything to do with it, but…. would using the word “irregardless” qualify? Doesn’t that “literally” (hee hee) mean the opposite of what the person is trying to convey? And by the way, is it proper to say “family orientated”? I believe the proper word is “oriented”. My husband says these things and it drives me bonkers! He also will mutilate a phrase, such as “I can’t even phantom (s/b fathom)something like that”, or “grace (s/b grease) my palm”, or “it’s not of an option (???)”, or, lastly, “another (s/b in other) words”. Aaargh! I used to correct him constantly until I decided that it will never change. Could these phrases being mutilated be a regional discrepancy?

What I find ironic is that so many people who hang out on a dictionary website and discuss proper word usage don`t seem to grasp basic, elementary grammar.

I know this is a really old post, and nobody will probably get this far into the comments…. But here I go anyway. (btw I am no English expert… You can tell by the way I misuse my “…”)

I think people misunderstand what is meant by “Expected”.

A warm day in November may not be expected to you, but I bet the weather man knew all about it. – Not Ironic

Running into the same person three times in one day is just a coincidence. Look at it like this… You may think it was unexpected running into Steve three times yesterday. But nobody else does, people run into each other all the time. Besides your probably work together, go to the same school, and shop at the same grocery store.

I’ve always looked at Irony as a more intimate thing… Kinda like “God” or whatever you believe in working against someone despite their best efforts. Like the example of the lifeguard drowning, or the car crashing into the “Drive Safe” sign. Not so much the opposite of what was expected, but the opposite of what was INTENDED. Like the Titanic sinking on its first voyage. That was a godsmack for claiming it was unsinkable. If it had happened on the 100th trip it would be less ironic and more unfortunate.

As for speaking ironically, I don’t see the difference from sarcasm. You can’t speak ironically, because what comes out of your mouth SHOULD be what was intended/expected. I supposed Freudian slips could be ironic, though I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

I usually let the misuse of ironic go since it is so hard to explain to someone who uses it wrong, as you can see from all the backlash in the comments.

On a different note, nothing is more annoying than people that misuse the words “than”, and “then”. An easy way to remember is THAN always has to do with value, THEN always has to do with time.