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A malapropism (/ ˈ m æ l ə p r ɒ p ɪ z əm /; also called a malaprop, acyrologia or Dogberryism) is the incorrect use of a word in place of a word with a similar sound, either unintentionally or for comedic effect, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance.
These words are sometimes confused; venal means "corrupt", "able to be bribed", or "for sale"; venial means "pardonable, not serious". [ 46 ] [ 119 ] Standard : According to Catholic doctrine, eating meat on a Friday during Lent is a venial sin, but murder is a mortal sin.
The following list, of about 350 words, is based on documented lists [4] [10] of the top 100, 200, or 400 [3] most commonly misspelled words in all variants of the English language, rather than listing every conceivable misspelled word. Some words are followed by examples of misspellings:
Definitional retreat – changing the meaning of a word when an objection is raised. [23] Often paired with moving the goalposts (see below), as when an argument is challenged using a common definition of a term in the argument, and the arguer presents a different definition of the term and thereby demands different evidence to debunk the argument.
The Wicked Bible The Judas Bible in St. Mary's Church, Totnes, Devon, UK. The Wicked Bible omits the word "not" in the commandment, "thou shalt not commit adultery".. The Judas Bible is a copy of the second folio edition of the authorized version, printed by Robert Barker, printer to James VI and I, in 1613, and given to the church for the use of the Mayor of Totnes.
In all the examples that follow, the word after the acronym repeats a word represented in the acronym. The full redundant phrase is stated in the parentheses that follow each example: "I forgot my PIN number for the ATM machine." (Personal Identification Number number; Automated Teller Machine machine) "I upgraded the RAM memory of my computer."
The word is now also used to mean "play down", "belittle" or "devalue", a shift that some disapprove of, as it suggests the word is being confused with the similar word depreciate; in fact, AHD4 states that in this sense deprecate has almost completely supplanted depreciate; however, a majority of the dictionary's Usage Panel approved this ...
In 2013 Dictionary.com said it was adding both mansplain and the suffix -splain to its dictionary. [8] Its announcement read in part: "In addition to being creative, this term, particularly the -splaining part, has proven to be incredibly robust and useful as a combining form in 2013."