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盘点
25
个最常弄错含义的英语单词
中外思维的差异使得我们在学习英语词汇时容易产生错误理解，把中文背
景带到英文单词
中。不要紧，今天就跟着我们一起看看
25
大常错词，及时纠正错误观念并牢牢记住吧！
1.
Irony
What you think it means: Something that
is funny
。你认为单词的含义是：滑稽的事。
What it really
means: Contrary to what you are expecting
。单词的真正含义是：事与
愿违的。
This
is a famous one because so many people
get this wrong so often. It’s also kind
of hard to explain, so we’ll use an
example. The Titanic was boasted about as being
100%
unsinkable and then in 1912 it was
sunk anyway. That is what is called cosmic irony.
When a starving vegetarian eats a
pepperoni pizza, that is what is called
situational irony
。
这是一个典型的单词，
因为经常有人用错。
解释起来可能有点困难，
< br>所以我们还是举例说明
吧。泰坦尼克号号称
100%
不会沉没，但
1912
年它还是意外沉没了
，这就叫
“
宇宙反讽
”
。
要是某个饿得不行的素食者忍不住吃了块香肠披萨，那就叫
< br>“
情境反讽
”
。
There are
other kinds too, such as dramatic irony and
Socratic irony. Believe it or not,
sarcasm
is actually irony. When you say
something sarcastically, your tone and your words
mean two opposite things. That is
ironic. Irony can be funny but not everything
funny is
irony
。当然还有其他分类，比如
“
喜剧式反讽
”
和
“
苏格拉底式反讽
”
< br>。不管你信不信，
irony
其
实和
sarcasm(
讽刺
)
是一个意思。当说到某件事很讽刺时，你的语调和用词意在表达完全相
反
的两种情况。这就是
ironic(
反讽
)
。反讽可以是滑稽的，但并不是所有滑稽的事都可以称
得上
“
反讽
”
。<
/p>
2.
Travesty
What you think it means: A tragedy or
something unfortunate
。你认为单词的含义是：
悲剧或不幸的事。
What it really means: A mockery or
parody
。单词的真正含义是：拙劣的模仿或恶搞。
This is another
one that people have wrong fairly frequently.
You’ve heard people call
9/11 a
travesty. Truth be told 9/11 was a tragedy. A
travesty is actually a mockery or a
parody. One might say that a Weird Al
Yankovic album is a travesty. With how often this
word is associated with tragedy, we
wouldn’t be shocked if that definition were
eventually
added as an acceptable
meaning. Until then, it doesn’t mean anything bad
happened
。
这也是人们经常用错的一个单词。有人把
9.11
事件说成
travesty
，其实他是想说是个
tragedy(
悲剧
< br>)
。
Travesty
其实是指
拙劣的模仿或恶搞。你可以说艾尔
?
扬科维奇的专辑是
travesty(
恶搞的
)
< br>。鉴于
travesty
这个单词总是被人们和
tragedy(
悲剧
)
搞混淆，或许以后
travesty
里面也能加入
“
悲剧
”
的含义吧。不过
到目前为止，这个单词跟
“
不好的事情
”
完全扯
不上关系。
3.
Ultimate
What you think it means: The one, the
only. The best
。你认为单词的含义是：某个，
唯一的，最好的。
What it really means: The last item of
a list
。单词的真正含义是：列表中的最后一项。
Some people do
actually use this one properly. You may see
someone list off a
bunch of things and
hear them say, “Okay, at the store we need eggs,
milk, juice, and
ultimately,
butter
。
” That is actually
the proper u
se of ultimate. There is no
other context or
added context. It
simply means the last one
。确实也有人能够正确使用这个
单词。你或许
看到过别人写出一串列单，然后听到他们说：
“<
/p>
嗯
……
我们要去商店买点鸡蛋、牛奶、果
汁，
最后
(ultimately)
还
有黄油。
”
这才是
ultimate<
/p>
的正确使用方法。这里不存在其他内容或补充
内容，
ultimate
就表示
“
最后一个
”
。
4.
Conversate
What you think it means: To have a
conversation
。你认为单词的含义是：进行交谈。
What it really
means:
Nothing
。单词的真正含义是：压根没有这个词。
Conversate
actually doesn’t exist and I’ll prove it to you.
Go into a program that
underlines words
with red if they’re spelled wrong. Now type out
conversa
te. Did you see
the
red line? Conversate was meant to be a mixture of
conversation and converse and be
used
as a verb. However, converse is a verb and there
really isn’t a need for a second
verb
to describe the same sate
这个单词其实是不存在的，这我
可以证明。
找个能标红错误拼写的程序，然后输入
conver
sate
这个单词，你应该能看到这个单词被标
了红色下划线吧
？
conversate
应该是
con
versation(
交谈
)
和
converse(
交谈
)
< br>的混合词，
词性
是动词。可是，
converse(
交谈
)
本身就是动
词，根本就没必要再造一个动词来描述同一个行
为了。
5. Peruse
What you think it means: To
skim or
browse
。你认为单词的含义是：略读或浏览。
What it really
means: To observe in
depth
。单词的真正含义是：深入观察。
When you peruse
something, you are actually taking a very close
look at it. When
you’re at a record
store and you’re just running through a
stack
of records, you are just browsing. If
you pick up a record and look at the artist, track
list, and additional information on the
back, then your are perusing
。
当你
peruse(
深入观察
)
某事物时，说明你看得非常仔细。假设你在唱片店穿过一排排的唱片架，那就是
“
浏览
”
。如
果你拿起一张唱片查看背后的艺术家、目录和其他信息，那就叫
peruse
(
深入观察
)
了。
6.
Bemused
What you think it means:
Amused
。你认为单词的含义是：愉快的。
What it really
means:
Confused
。单词的真正含义是：困惑的。
This is one of
the many words on this list that will make you
strongly dislike the
English language.
Despite looking all but identical to the word
amused, bemused doesn’t
even come close
to meaning the same thing. If you are bemused then
you are actually
confused
。这个
单词可能本清单中
“
荣膺
”
让你讨厌英语的原因之一。尽管
bemused(
困惑的
)
在拼写上跟
amused(<
/p>
愉快的
)
很相似，但这两个单词的含义却
并不一样。如果你
bemused
，
说
明你其实很困惑。
7. Compelled
What you think it means: To
do something voluntarily by choice
。你认为单
词的含义
是：志愿选择做某事。
What it really means: To be
forced or obligated to doing something
。
单词的真正含义
是：被迫或有义务做某事。
This is one
that people get wrong and it’s rather
understandable. The real definition is
very close to the definition people
generally use. The difference is the motivation.
When
people say compelled, they think
the person wants to perform the action. In fact,
they are
forced to do it regardless of
their personal feelings. Here’s an example. When
you’re in
court, you are compelled to
give honest testimony. You may not want to, but it
doesn’t
matter because you have to
。这个单词被人们搞错其实倒也情有可原。它的真实定义和人
们通常误用的
含义很接近，但区别就在于动机如何。当说到
compelled(
被迫
)
时，人们以为
说话者想做某
事，但实际上，说话者是有违自身情绪而被迫去做某事的。举个例子，在出庭
时，你就是
compelled(
被迫
)
如实作证的，你可能心里不情愿，但不管怎样你只能这么做。
8.
Nauseous
What you think it means: To feel
ill
。你认为单词的含义是：感觉不舒服。
What it really
means: To cause feelings of illness
。
单词的真正含义是：
令人不舒服的。
This is another
understandable mishap
that a lot of people make. If you
actually feel sick then you are nauseated. The
object
that made you feel ill is
nauseous. Here’s how this works. If you’re at an
amusement park
and you’re sitting next
to a full trash can, the fumes from the trash may
make you feel ill.
That means the fumes
from the trash can are nauseous because they are
making you feel
nauseated
。许多
人用错这个单词也是情有可原的。如果你果真感到不舒服，那么你会
nauseated
(
作呕
)
，让你感到不舒服的东西是<
/p>
nauseous(
作呕的
)
。请看下面的例子。假设你
坐在游乐园一个满满的垃圾桶旁边，
垃圾桶里冒出的烟雾让你感到不舒服。
这就是说，
垃圾
桶里冒出的烟雾是
nauseous(
令人作呕的
)
，因为它让你感到
n
auseated(
作呕
)
。
9. Redundant
What you think
it means:
Repetitive
。你认为单词的含义是：重复的。
What it really
means: Unnecessarily
excessive
。单词的真正含义是：过剩的。
This one is
tough because you can use it wrong but
unintentionally use it right. When
you
repeat something a bunch of times, it can become
redundant, but redundant expands
far
beyond just repeating things over and over. A
popular thing companies are doing now
is firing people but instead of calling
it “getting fired,” they call it “eliminating
redundancies
。
”
The premise being that the employee they’re firing
is unnecessary and
excessive and they
are thus eliminating them. In pretty much any
scenario where there is
simply too much
of something, it is redundant
。这个单词有点复杂，
因为你可能总会用错，
却也不一定什么时候就用对了。当你不断重复某事很多次后，事情
可能就会变得
redundant(
多余的
)
，
但是
redundant
这个词所包含的意思远不止
“
不断重复
”
。
当下公司都很
流行解聘雇员，但他们不会说
“
炒你鱿鱼
”
，而是称之为
“
裁员
”
；但前提是，被裁的员工是可
有可无的、多余的，
这样就可以裁掉了。在很多情况下，如果某事太多太剩，那就是
redundant(<
/p>
多余的
)
了。
10.
Enormity
What you think it means: Huge,
enormous
。你认为单词的含义是：巨大的，庞大的。
What it really
means: Profoundly immoral or evil
。单词的真正
含义是：极其不道德的
或邪恶的。
Don’t beat yourself up over
this one because no one knows this one off the top
of
their head. Enormity sounds like
enormous and as with many of our other examples,
here
we expect words that sound alike
to have similar meanings. Enormity simply means
really
evil. An example of how to use
it is the following: “The enormity of the crimes
committed
by the Nazis in World War
II
。
” It doesn’t mean the
enormous crimes, it means the heinous
c
rimes
。不要因为用错这个单词而自责，因为没多少人能不假思索地知道这个单词。
Enormity(
穷凶恶极
)
的发音和
enormous(
庞大的
)
比较相近，正如先前提过的许多例子一样，
对
于发音相似的单词，人们也很容易认为它们的意思也一样。
Enormity
是指
“
极其邪恶
”
。举
个例子来说明如何使用这个单词吧。
“<
/p>
纳粹分子在二战中犯下的罪行是
enormity(
穷凶恶极
的
)
。
”
它不是说
enormous(
< br>庞大的
)
罪行，而是指十恶不赦的罪行。
11.
Terrific
What you think it means: Fantastic,
good
。你认为单词的含义是：妙极了，极好的。
What it really
means: Horrific, to inspire fear
。单词的真正含
义是：可怖的，令人害怕
的。
This is another one that we
expect will be changed in the dictionary
eventually
because barely anyone uses
the real meaning anymore. When people say they
feel
terrific, they mean to say they
feel fantastic. An example of something terrific
is King Kong.
You see a giant monster
and it inspires fear. We’re going to loop
awesom
e in with this one
too. Awesome simply means to inspire
awe and people often use it to describe something
really good
。
我们认为这
个单词的含义以后也会在词典里重新修订，
因为现在几乎没有人会
去使用它的真正含义。当人们说感觉
terrific(
恐怖
的
)
时，他们是指感觉
fantast
ic(
好极了
)
。
《金刚》就是典型的
terrific(
可怖的
)
例子，因为它是巨怪，让人感到恐惧。在此顺便说说
awesome
这个单词吧。
Awesome
是指
“
让人感到惊惧
”
，
但现在人们用这个词的时候主要是
指
“
某事好极了
”
。
12.
Effect
What you may think it means: To cause
something to change
。你以为单词的含义是：
引起某事发生变化。
What it really means: An event that
causes a change
。单词的真正含义是：引起变化
事件。
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