Most people confidently misuse these everyday words without realizing it, but those with truly sharp minds catch the subtle differences that reveal precise thinking and set them apart in any conversation.
Add VegOut to your Google News feed. 
Ever catch yourself in one of those moments where everyone nods along, but you can tell something's off?
I had one of those experiences at a networking event last year. A speaker kept using the word "peruse" to mean "skim quickly" through documents. The entire room went along with it, but I noticed a few subtle winces from people who knew better.
Peruse actually means to read carefully and thoroughly, the exact opposite of how most people use it.
That moment stuck with me because it highlighted something I've noticed throughout my career: the words we choose reveal more about our thinking than we realize. After nearly two decades analyzing financial reports and human behavior, I've learned that precision in language often correlates with precision in thought.
The thing is, we all occasionally misuse words. But people with genuinely sharp minds tend to catch these mistakes and correct them. They care about accuracy, not to show off, but because clear thinking requires clear language.
So today, I want to share nine words that quietly separate those who pay attention from those who just go with the flow. These aren't obscure vocabulary words meant to impress at cocktail parties. They're common words that most of us use incorrectly without even realizing it.
1) Ironic
How many times have you heard someone say "How ironic!" when they really mean "What a coincidence!"?
True irony involves an outcome that's the opposite of what you'd expect. Rain on your wedding day? That's unfortunate, not ironic. But a fire station burning down while the firefighters are at a fire safety seminar? Now that's ironic.
I used to misuse this one constantly until a colleague gently corrected me during a presentation. The distinction matters because irony implies a deeper observation about contradictions in life, while coincidence is just random chance.
Understanding the difference shows you're thinking about cause and effect, not just noting surface-level connections.
2) Literally
This one makes me cringe every time. "I literally died laughing." No, you didn't.
Literally means something actually happened exactly as stated. When you use it for emphasis on something figurative, you're doing the opposite of what the word means. Sharp minds reserve "literally" for when they need to clarify that something unusual actually occurred. "The CEO literally stood on his desk during the meeting" tells us something remarkable really happened.
The overuse of literally has become so common that dictionaries now include its informal use as an intensifier. But those who value precise communication stick to its original meaning.
3) Comprise
Here's a word that trips up even seasoned professionals. The whole comprises the parts, not the other way around.
The United States comprises fifty states. The fifty states don't comprise the United States. They compose it or constitute it. I learned this distinction the hard way when reviewing a major report early in my analyst days. My mentor circled every misuse in red ink. There were many.
The easy way to remember? If you can replace it with "includes" or "consists of," you're using comprise correctly. If you need to say "make up" or "form," use compose instead.
4) Enormity
Most people use enormity to mean enormous size, but it actually refers to extreme evil or moral wrongness. The enormity of the crime, not the enormity of the building.
I once heard a CEO talk about "the enormity of our success" at a company meeting. Those of us who knew the word's actual meaning exchanged uncomfortable glances. Was he making a dark joke about corporate practices, or did he just mean the magnitude of success?
When you need to describe something impressively large, use immensity or magnitude instead.
5) Disinterested
Being disinterested doesn't mean you're bored. It means you're impartial, without bias or personal stake in the outcome. That's why we want disinterested judges and mediators.
Uninterested means you don't care. Disinterested means you care about fairness more than the outcome. During my years analyzing companies, being disinterested was crucial. I had to evaluate data objectively, regardless of whether I personally liked the company or its products.
This distinction matters in professional settings. Saying you want a disinterested opinion shows you value objectivity. Saying you want an uninterested opinion suggests you're looking for someone who doesn't care.
6) Nonplussed
Here's where things get really interesting. Nonplussed traditionally means confused or perplexed, not unbothered or unimpressed as many people assume.
I discovered this during a particularly challenging period when I was transitioning from finance to writing. A friend described me as nonplussed by the career change, meaning it as a compliment about my calm demeanor. But nonplussed actually would have meant I was bewildered by my own decision.
The confusion has become so widespread that some dictionaries now list both meanings, but careful communicators stick to the original definition.
7) Bemused
Similar to nonplussed, bemused doesn't mean amused. It means confused or lost in thought.
You're not bemused by a funny joke. You're bemused when something leaves you puzzled or preoccupied. I often felt genuinely bemused during my early days of journaling, trying to make sense of patterns in my thoughts and behaviors that had gone unexamined for years.
When you use bemused correctly, you're showing awareness of subtle emotional states beyond simple amusement.
8) Fortuitous
Fortuitous means happening by chance, not fortunate or lucky, though the two often overlap.
A fortuitous meeting is one that happened by accident, whether the outcome was good or bad. The confusion comes because many chance encounters are also fortunate, but the word itself only refers to the random nature of the event.
I think about this distinction often when reflecting on my career pivot. Meeting someone who encouraged me to write was fortuitous because it was unplanned. That it led to a fulfilling career made it fortunate as well.
9) Travesty
A travesty isn't just something terrible or tragic. It's specifically a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.
A bad meal isn't a travesty. A renowned chef's restaurant serving microwave dinners would be a travesty. It's about the mockery or perversion of what something should be.
Understanding this distinction helps you use the word with precision when something truly does make a mockery of standards or expectations.
Final thoughts
Why do these distinctions matter? After filling 47 notebooks with observations about life and language, I've noticed that people who use words precisely tend to think more clearly about everything else too.
Getting these words right isn't about being pedantic or showing off your vocabulary. It's about developing the habit of precision, of caring whether what you say matches what you mean.
Next time you're about to use one of these words, pause for a moment. Ask yourself if you're using it correctly. That small act of reflection might seem trivial, but it's exactly the kind of mental discipline that sharpens your mind over time.
And if you've been using some of these incorrectly? Welcome to the club. The real mark of a sharp mind isn't never making mistakes. It's being willing to learn and adjust when you discover you've been wrong.
