Words that look wrong

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (156 of them)

View Previous Page...

segue doesn't look wrong to me. seg - ue.

― hockey family (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link

i cringe whenever i see it spelled "segueway."

― hockey family (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link

weird

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

draught

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link

it looks like it should be pronounced "drot"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link

haeghmoeurrheud

― Bnad, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Cwm. I know the derivation is Welsh, but still, that's one fucked up looking word.

― Hunter (Hunter), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Liquefy (I discovered not long ago I'd been spelling it incorrectly my entire life)

Deserts (as in "just deserts", not the big sandy things in Africa. Same reason as above).

Words that usually end un -ue but when people cut those letters off (analog).

― lupine lupin (lupinelupin), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I always thought "just desserts" was spelled with double-s to reference post-dinner dessert!

― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link

It is!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

ought

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

i cringe whenever i see it spelled "segueway."
you can blame Dean Kamen for making the situation even worse:

http://ordell.typepad.com/tobias/blogpics/segway.jpg

― trigonalmayhem (trigonalmayhem), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link

"I always thought "just desserts" was spelled with double-s to reference post-dinner dessert!"

So did I, which is why it looks odd to me now. The word desert (rhymes with dessert) comes from the same root as deserve, and means something that you deserve (just deserts - it's what you justly deserve), and seeing as deserve only has the one s it does seem obvious now I suppose, I just assumed it was some sort of idiom about puddings that I didn't fully understand rather than an ordinary word with a literal meaning.

― lupine lupin (lupinelupin), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:02 (nineteen years ago) link

parallel

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

Last year 'house' had me baffled for weeks. It just started looking mental for some reason.

― Adamdrome Crankypants (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:25 (nineteen years ago) link

short

― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:58 (nineteen years ago) link

merkin

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 23:09 (nineteen years ago) link

rhythm

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 18 November 2004 02:07 (nineteen years ago) link

ouija?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 18 November 2004 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link

The word desert (rhymes with dessert) comes from the same root as deserve, and means something that you deserve (just deserts - it's what you justly deserve), and seeing as deserve only has the one s it does seem obvious now I suppose, I just assumed it was some sort of idiom about puddings that I didn't fully understand rather than an ordinary word with a literal meaning.

Jesus, I had no idea. How embarrasing.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 November 2004 03:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Boatswain:

It ain't the spelling so much as the pronounciation. Jesus, now it does look ridiculous. Both, I guess.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 18 November 2004 03:24 (nineteen years ago) link

wainscoating. Its the way it is pronounced I guess. OK its a Python joke, I couldn't think of anything else.

Though once I was convinced "laundry" was not the word for the place in which one washes ones smalls. I thnk I'd decided it was "launrdroom" and couldnt shake that out of my head.

Mind you, this coming from me, the person who once stared at my phone a full ten minutes trying to remember the number for directory assistance.

That number being 013.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 November 2004 03:28 (nineteen years ago) link

pumpkin

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:01 (nineteen years ago) link

WHAT'S THE NUMBER FOR 911??? </Homer>

― Adamdrome Crankypants (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Hahah yeah yeah shutup ;P

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link

tongue

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link

on the title track of the fiery furnaces' blueberry boat, eleanor pronounces "starboard" wrong. (the character is a sailor, ferchrissakes!) but yeah, if i'd never heard the word spoken aloud i'd mispronounce it too -- it's gotta be some archaic middle-english thing.

― hockey family (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:23 (nineteen years ago) link

chagrin

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 18 November 2004 04:25 (nineteen years ago) link

almost

― Slump Man (Slump Man), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:46 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't take too kindly to words that look at me wrong.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:51 (nineteen years ago) link

wainscoating

It's actually "wainscoting" (that one I didn't know until I looked it up or "wainscotting" (that one I did)

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:54 (nineteen years ago) link

lead and led

― wetmink (wetmink), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:55 (nineteen years ago) link

ceiling

― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 19 November 2004 04:05 (nineteen years ago) link

entrepeneurism

― erik, Friday, 19 November 2004 08:12 (nineteen years ago) link

asphalt

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 22 November 2004 10:29 (nineteen years ago) link

minute

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 22 November 2004 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link

separate

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 12:59 (nineteen years ago) link

flit

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 17:23 (nineteen years ago) link

guard

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 17:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Throatwobbler Mangrove

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

albeit

― tremendoid, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link

the word "sword" has always bugged me.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 21:32 (nineteen years ago) link

a capella
privilege

i probably spelled both of those wrong.

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link

gubernatorial

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

definite
dude

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:21 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

ONE

― z "R" s (Z S), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 03:56 (fifteen years ago) link

comptroller

― thereminimum chips (electricsound), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 03:56 (fifteen years ago) link

If you were in a spelling bee and you had to spell ONE, without ever seeing it before, you would be completely helpless.

― z "R" s (Z S), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 03:59 (fifteen years ago) link

rhythm

― myspace password secretary (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 12 November 2008 03:59 (fifteen years ago) link

drinkability

― mookieproof, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 04:03 (fifteen years ago) link

Skipping 56 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Tortoise had a song called Djed which I assume was the past tense of Djing. Had a friend who pronounced it phonetically though.

― Stevolende, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 18:30 (two years ago) link

i always pronounced it phonetically and never until this moment thought to pronounce it as the past tense of DJ. huh. will have to think about it

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 18:32 (two years ago) link

Always pronounced it 'Jed' in my, uh, head. Hadn't even considered the other option.

― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 18:50 (two years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.