Top 10 Misused English Words Many people who’ve had to proof
read documents start to develop a kind of compulsive “tutting”
at misused words. Here’s my top ten words that are misused by
either professional writers or public speakers who, let’s be
honest, should really know better. I’m not being paid for this,
so I don’t feel so bad if there are mistakes! “Refute” means to
“disprove with evidence” and yet it’s commonly used, even by
professional writers, to mean “rebut” which carries a similar
meaning but isn’t quite so strong, as it can also mean “argue
against.” The example here (“Simon Cowell refutes ‘scandalous’
claims he helped billionaire hide assets from wife he was
divorcing”) is from a recent Daily Mail article. For those
outside the UK, the Daily Mail is a newspaper which regularly
rages against falling educational standards. A special mention
to Sarah Palin who invented a new word “refudiate”; the usage
suggests she meant repudiate. Nowadays, it’s almost universally
assumed that “instant” actually m