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Profanity is often depicted in images by grawlixes, which substitute symbols for words.. Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, involves the use of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion, as a grammatical intensifier or emphasis, or to express informality or ...
difference of votes between first and second place (US: plurality) more than half of all votes, people, etc. (UK: absolute majority) make out to draw up, to seek to make it appear, to fabricate a story to see with difficulty; to understand the meaning of to kiss (see Making out) to succeed or profit ("She made out well on that deal ...
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. Additional usage ...
Similarly, a river bank, a savings bank, a bank of switches, and a bank shot in the game of pool share a common spelling and pronunciation, but differ in meaning. The words bow and bough are examples where there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); two meanings with two different ...
The word slut is commonly interchanged with the words tramp, whore, hoe, nympho, and hooker. All of these words have a very negative connotation. Additional meanings and connotations of the term are negative and identify a slut as being a slovenly and ugly person, for example, as in these quotations from OED2:
In practice, its use and meaning are heavily dependent on context, with non-offensive examples ranging from a greeting, [12] to reprimand, to general reference, to a use synonymous with male person. [citation needed] As of 2007, the word nigga was used more liberally by some younger members of all races and ethnicities in the United States. [13]
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang says a prick is "a despicable man, a fool, used as a general term of offence or contempt. Often as an abusive form of address, always of a male or an inanimate object." [1] Similarly the Oxford Dictionary of English says "a stupid or contemptible man". [2]
In historical linguistics, the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration.An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word silly from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated. [3]