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  2. List of commonly misused English words - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commonly_misused...

    Its use as a synonym for Arab is considered controversial by some [who?]. are and our. Are is the second-person singular present and the first-, second-, and third-person plural present of the verb be. Our means "belonging to us". Standard: Are you coming to our house after the show?

  3. Catachresis - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catachresis

    Replacing an expected word with another, half rhyming (or a partly sound-alike) word, with an entirely different meaning from what one would expect (cf malapropism, Spoonerism, aphasia). [5] I'm ravished! for "I'm ravenous!" or for "I'm famished!" "They build a horse" instead of they build a house. The strained use of an already existing word ...

  4. Semantic change - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change

    Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage.

  5. List of forms of word play - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_forms_of_word_play

    Blanagram: rearranging the letters of a word or phrase and substituting one single letter to produce a new word or phrase; Letter bank: using the letters from a certain word or phrase as many times as wanted to produce a new word or phrase; Jumble: a kind of word game in which the solution of a puzzle is its anagram

  6. List of English words with disputed usage - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_with...

    A aggravate – Some have argued that this word should not be used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress", but only to mean "to make worse". According to AHDI, the use of "aggravate" as "annoy" occurs in English as far back as the 17th century. In Latin, from which the word was borrowed, both meanings were used. Sixty-eight percent of AHD4's usage panel approves of its use in "It's the ...

  7. Word taboo - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_taboo

    Word taboo, also called taboo language, language taboo or linguistic taboo is a kind of taboo that involves restricting the use of words or other parts of language due to social constraints. This may be due to a taboo on specific parts of the language itself (such as certain words, or sounds), or due to the need to avoid a taboo topic.

  8. Scrambling (linguistics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(linguistics)

    Scrambling is a syntactic phenomenon wherein sentences can be formulated using a variety of different word orders without a substantial change in meaning. Instead the reordering of words, from their canonical position, has consequences on their contribution to the discourse (i.e., the information's "newness" to the conversation).

  9. Ghost word - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_word

    A recent, incorrect use of the term "ghost word" refers to coining a new word inferred from a real word by falsely applying an etymological rule. The correct term for such a derivation is back-formation , a word that has been established since the late 19th century. [ 1 ]