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There is frequent confusion between things that cannot and should not be over/underestimated, though the meanings are opposite. Standard : The damage caused by pollution cannot be overestimated (i.e., it is so enormous that no estimate, however high, is excessive)
For the second portion of the list, see List of words having different meanings in American and British English: M–Z. Asterisked (*) meanings, though found chiefly in the specified region, also have some currency in the other region; other definitions may be recognised by the other as Briticisms or Americanisms respectively.
Confusion with before/after, right/left, and so on; Difficulty learning the alphabet; Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems; Difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words (phonological awareness) Difficulty with hearing and manipulating sounds in words (phonemic awareness)
[88] (opposite of appeal to tradition) Appeal to poverty (argumentum ad Lazarum) – supporting a conclusion because the arguer is poor (or refuting because the arguer is wealthy). (Opposite of appeal to wealth.) [89] Appeal to tradition (argumentum ad antiquitatem) – a conclusion supported solely because it has long been held to be true. [90]
In many ways, those who have a CDS profile have some of the opposite symptoms of those with predominantly hyperactive-impulsive or combined presentation of ADHD: instead of being hyperactive, extroverted, obtrusive, excessively energetic and risk takers, those with CDS are drifting, absent-minded, listless, introspective and daydreamy. They ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Oxymorons are words that communicate contradictions. An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction. As a rhetorical device, an oxymoron illustrates a point to communicate and reveal a paradox.
Thus "inflammable" is an auto-antonym, a word that can be its own antonym, depending on context. Because of the risk of confusion, style guides sometimes recommend using the unambiguous terms "flammable" and "not flammable". [43] Misconception: It is incorrect to use "nauseous" to refer to a person's state.