9 Everyday Words That Everybody Is Using Completely Wrong
7. Enormity
What People Think It Means: The scale or size of something. What It Actually Means: The great or extreme extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong. The suffix -ity is usually used to mean the state or condition of a certain thing, such as in normality, agility, or civility. So, when confronted with enormity, one might be fairly confident in thinking that it means something along the lines of enormousness. Apparently not, as it happens. The reason for the seemingly bizarre definition of enormity stems from a lesser-known definition of enormous, which signifies something outrageous or atrocious. In this way, enormitys meaning makes sense, to a certain extent. So if someone is staggered at the enormity of your generous actions, either theyve made this mistake or theyre quite ungrateful and you would do well without them.
Canadian student. Spends probably an unhealthy amount of time enthusing over musicals, unpopular TV shows, and Harry Potter. Main life goal: to become fluent in Elvish.
