15 Phrases You’ve Been Saying Wrong Your Whole Life

“A few bad apples now means the opposite. It’s now misused to absolve an organization of the misconduct of a few of its members. The full phrase is, ‘a few bad apples can spoil the whole bunch,’ which means that even if there’s just a few bad people in the organization, there’s something inherently wrong with the organization to let even a few bad actors thrive.” — Lady_von_Stinkbeaver

“Momentarily to describe something that will happen soon. It doesn’t mean ‘in a moment from now,’ it means ‘for a very brief moment.’ Duration, not immediacy.” — Which-Cheesecake-685

“The phrase ‘pulling oneself up by their bootstraps’ was originally meant to show how impossible and ridiculous it is to get ahead through nothing but grit. The fact that people use the phrase unironically makes no sense to me.” — ninjesh

“I hear/see way too many people go ‘I itched my whatever.’ You didn’t itch your whatever. You scratched it. You had an itch. And itches get scratched. You can’t itch something.” — sentient_barf

“Most people say jealous when they mean envious. Jealous = I have something that I don’t want you to have. Envious = I want what you have.” — CryptoSlovakian

“Begging the question. This refers to a specific logical fallacy where the premises are predicated on the conclusion being true. Most people use it in place of ‘raises the question.'” — breakermw

“Flush this out should be flesh this out, meaning to add the details to something like putting flesh on bare bones.” — hickdog896

“Most people do not know what the word ‘ambivalence’ actually means. They think it’s the same as ‘apathetic.’ It’s not. It means having mixed feelings.” — SpaceAndTheSea

“I hear humming and hawing a lot. Also, tons of published articles where people seem to think the past tense of lead is also lead, instead of led.” — ultimapanzer

“Compliment=/=complement. You compliment someone on how their shirt complements their eyes.” — JayGold

“Electrocute. 9/10 times you mean to say shocked or zapped. Electrocute means that someone was injured or killed via electric shock. Injury has to occur for that to apply.” — DWGJay

“It’s hold the fort not hold down the fort, unless it was a balloon fort I suppose.” — -Grey_Area-

“People say money is the root of all evil. Should be saying the love of money is the root of all evil. Big difference.” — sooninsolvent

“On accident. You do something BY accident. How can you do a thing ON accident?” — Eveny101

“Omnipotent. People don’t seem to grasp what it means. It is all powerful and all knowing. There is nothing an omnipotent being cannot do. There cannot be two omnipotent beings as their wills could crash and make something they cannot do, therefore disproving omnipotence. The exact dictionary definition is (of a deity) having unlimited power; able to do anything.” — No_Lingonberry6153

“It’s spit and image, not spitting image, though I also recognize at this point everyone just says the latter and that the battle over this phrase is long since lost.” — squeakyrhino