# Name a word that doesn't mean what most people think it means

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-word-that-doesnt-mean-what-most-people-think-it-means/480523>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 9, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-word-that-doesnt-mean-what-most-people-think-it-means/480523 "2009-01-09T14:23:44Z")\
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**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-word-that-doesnt-mean-what-most-people-think-it-means/480523/101 "2009-01-10T15:10:05Z")

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\*Effete \*- means lacking in vigour, exhausted, sterile. The “effeminate” meaning is a modern nuisance.

_Noisome_ - means disgusting or harmful (typically, as an odour). Not loud.  
My favourite word of the moment, however, is _pleonasm_. It pretty much means redundant. It’s just that we already have a word for redundant…

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