So what should you do in the face of such confusion? One option is to…let it go. But wait! There’s also dramatic irony, situational irony, historical irony and others.
However, unlike sarcasm (which also does this), irony is not intended to hurt. While the concept of irony is extremely multi-layered, at its most simple it’s a way to use words to express the opposite of their literal meaning. (In fact, as Alanis Morissette’s famous song, Ironic – with around 10 poor examples of irony – shows us, coincidences and unfortunate events aren’t enough.) (No, really – we could write a whole course on using irony correctly!) While irony is often understood to mean a coincidence or strange turn of events, that in itself doesn’t cover its full meaning. Here is a word that has confused almost all English speakers – native or otherwise. Interestingly, because of the sheer reach of its incorrect use, the Oxford English Dictionary has included an informal use for ‘literally’ allowing it as a tool to give emphasis, like in the above examples.
‘Literally’ means, “in a literal sense”, or “what I’m saying is not imagined, but truly happened as I’m saying it.” Therefore, popular uses like “I literally died laughing,” or “He was so embarrassed his cheeks literally burned up,” are not correct. Misuse of this word has been known to raise people’s blood pressure. If you know a language purist, watch out. As a follow up to our article on confusing words, here are ten of the most difficult words in English.
Sometimes they’re difficult to understand, other times they’ve been misused so often that their original meaning has gotten lost. English can be a real pest, and even native speakers find themselves stumbling over some stubbornly tricky words.
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