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Meanings common to British and American English. American English meanings. backside (n.) posterior, buttocks. (as two words, back side) rear of anything [11][12][13][14] banger (n.) a sausage, as in "bangers and mash". an old motor car in a state of disrepair (US: beater or jalopy) a type of firework.
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).
Thesaurus. A thesaurus (pl.: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), [1][2] sometimes as a hierarchy of broader and narrower terms ...
Synonym. A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. [2] For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one ...
This is a list of English words that are thought to be commonly misused. It is meant to include only words whose misuse is deprecated by most usage writers, editors, and professional grammarians defining the norms of Standard English. It is possible that some of the meanings marked non-standard may pass into Standard English in the future, but ...
v. t. e. This is a list of British words not widely used in the United States. In Commonwealth of Nations, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Australia, some of the British terms listed are used, although another usage is often preferred. Words with specific British English meanings that have ...
Beatlemania – English band the Beatles, 1960s. Dalekmania – Dalek characters from Doctor Who, c. 1965. Dianamania – Diana, Princess of Wales, 1980s and 1990s. Jacksonmania – Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5. Leo-mania – American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, late 1990s. Lisztomania – Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, 1840s.
Literal and figurative language is a distinction that exists in all natural languages; it is studied within certain areas of language analysis, in particular stylistics, rhetoric, and semantics. Literal language is the usage of words exactly according to their direct, straightforward, or conventionally accepted meanings: their denotation.