Word list · 12 words
Real word or 404?
Some words sound invented even though they have been in dictionaries for centuries, and some sound official but have never been recorded. Each page on this list gives a verdict, real word, nonstandard but real, not in dictionaries, or ghost word, with the source that settles it.
A word does not need a dictionary's permission to exist: dictionaries record words once people use them. So a verdict here says what the record shows today, and a word that is missing now may be listed in a few years.
Kept on this device only, for the daily recall in My words.
The words
Ain't
Ain't is a contraction of am not, is not, are not, has not and have not.
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
Anyways
Anyways means "anyway": regardless, or (at the start of a sentence) "moving on".
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
Could care less
"I could care less" means "I don't care at all", exactly like "I couldn't care less".
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
For all intents and purposes
"For all intents and purposes" means "in effect" or "in every practical sense": one thing isn't technically another, but works the same way.
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
Orientate
Orientate means the same as "orient": to find your bearings, to position something in a direction, or to help someone settle into something new.
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
Snuck
Snuck is a past tense and past participle of "sneak": "she snuck out of the party".
Grammar & Commonly-Confused
Supposably
Supposably means "as may be supposed or imagined", close to conceivably or presumably.
Grammar & Commonly-Confused