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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，
所以我们还
是举例说明吧。
泰坦尼克号号称
100%
< br>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
“
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
”
。
不管你信不信，
irony
其实和
sa
rcasm
（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
”
。
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）。
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
trav
esty
（恶搞的）。鉴于
travesty
< br>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 prop
er
use 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：
“
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
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 t
ype out conversate.
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
action.
Conversate
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
conversate
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
conversation
（交谈）
和
converse
（交谈）
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
< br>（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
”
< br>。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
（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
compell
ed
（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. H
ere’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
na
useated
（作呕），让你感到不舒服的东西是
nause
ous
（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
< br>（令人作呕的），因
为它让你感到
nauseated<
/p>
（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）
，
< br>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
r
edundant
（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 crimes.
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。
“
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
（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 awesome 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
f
antastic
（好极了）。《金刚》就是典型的
terri
fic
（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。<
/p>
Awesome
是指
“
< br>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。<
/p>
What
it really means:
An event that causes a
change.
单词的真正含义是：引
起变化事件。
A lot of people staunchly defend the
wrong definition of this and
it’s
understandable. When action A causes a change in
object B, action A
affected object B
and object B has been affected. Effect is an event
that
causes a change. In our prior
example, action A is, in and of itself, an effect
because it affects things. It’s
admittedly confusing to explain but easy to
remember. If it’s a noun, it’s an
effect. If it’s a verb, it’s an affect.
很多人是错误用法的拥趸者，
这是可以理解的。
当行动
A
导致事物
B
发生变化，
行动<
/p>
A
影响了事物
B
，
因此，
事物
B
受到了影响。
Effect
其实是指引起变化的事
件。在先前的例子中，行动
A
本身就是个
effect
（事件），因为它影响了事物。
不
得不说，这么解释起来很容易引起困惑，不过记起来却不难。如果是名词，那
就是
effect
（事件）；如果是动词，那就是
affect
（影响）。
13. Disinterested
What you think it means:
Bored.
你以为单词的含义是：无趣的。
What it really means:
Neutral.
单词的真正含义是：中立的。
A
good way to
remember this one is that
there is a word that means bored and it’s