English is a confusing language. Not only are English words hard to spell, but many words frequently get mispronounced. Nailing proper English grammar, especially when technology and social media continue to change linguistics, is getting harder.
A 2024 study on the impacts of grammar and language on over 300 million English comments left online noted that social media has created “a consistent trend of decreasing text length and lexical richness.” Translation: our smart phones are making it harder to nail the correct use and meaning of certain words.
It’s a trend people in an Reddit grammar forum discussed by highlighting the words they hear and see most commonly misused by people—and the ones that irk them the most. These are 34 of the most misused words of 2025:
“I hear a whole lot of people saying ‘weary’ when they mean ‘wary’.” — alejo699
“I guess this is more spelling, but using ‘loose’ instead of ‘lose’. — jd_9220
“Also ‘breathe’ and ‘breath’.” —Lanky-County2481
“With all the ICE stuff happening lately, I’ve been seeing a ton of people mention the ‘boarder’ [when they mean ‘border’] in their comments. Aww/awe irks me a bit, like when someone writes, ‘Awe, that pic of your dog is so cute!’ Lately I’ve seen a horrifying amount of newspapers and news outlets report on ‘grizzly’ [when they mean ‘grisly’] murders. Either proofreaders are no longer being employed by them, or there are a whole lot of bear maulings going on.” — anosmia1974
“Or people asking for ‘advise’.” — growing_fatties
“Weary/wary, hardy/hearty, averse/adverse, compliment/complement, discreet/discrete, phased/fazed, diffuse/defuse…” — nemmalur
“Averse/adverse. I can’t get my wife to stop saying ‘I’m not adverse to it’ and she’s an editor. I can only conclude she’s doing it to f*ck with me now.” —alejo699
“Affect/effect.” —Go_time_24
“Of.’ As in ‘should of’.” — DrinkAllTheAbsinthe
“Gaslighting.” — Parking_War_4100
“Infer. People use it when they mean imply. Infer is when you’re picking up the clue. Imply is when you’re suggesting it. Acronym. People use it a lot to mean initialism. If it’s read like a word – it’s an acronym. If you say the letters, it’s an initialism. Honorable mention to jealous/envious mix up.” —HungaJungaESQ
” Less’. Because about 1/2 the time the word you mean is ‘fewer’. ‘Nauseous.’ That means something that makes you nauseated. The correct word ‘nauseated’. ‘Jealous’ is the fear of losing something you do already have, while ‘envious’ means wanting something you don’t have. Most of these things have shifted meaning, so they fit how we use them because that’s how language works, but these ones strike me a lot.” —sgbenoit
“Using ironic when it’s actually coincidental. I especially hate it in TV shows and movies when writers should know better.” —shaft_of_lite
“Intensive, like the ‘purposes’.” —Reasonable-Truck-874
“I don’t have any idea why it bothers me so much, but I hate when people say ‘hung’ in reference to an execution rather than ‘hanged’.” — RepresentativeKey178
“Non-plussed. It means shocked by something into silence/an inability to respond, not to be unmoved by something.” —CinemaDork
“Irregardless.” —mystrymaster
“Seen. ‘I seen it’.” — Antique_Noise_8863
“Moreso. It’s more so, two words internet. I will die on this hill.” — Rocketeli2
“Satire, honestly. I see it in comment sections on videos that are intended to be comedic, even ones with simple puns or dad jokes. Yes, satire is comedic, but not every joke on the internet is satire.” — bitterlemonboy
“‘This is an everyday thing’ vs ‘I do this every day’.” —dumbass_777
“I’ve seen ‘redundant’ get misused a lot. People treat it like it means ‘useless’ or ‘inferior to other options’. It’s supposed to mean something that duplicates the function of something else, and can be a positive feature, like a failsafe or additional oversight.” —TheGrumpyre
“You don’t do diligence. You do your due diligence.” — Ill_Pressure3893
“‘Phase’ instead of ‘faze’ grinds my gears.” — matcha0atmilklatte
