# The only word you're not allowed to use ironically
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-only-word-youre-not-allowed-to-use-ironically/963827
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 2, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-only-word-youre-not-allowed-to-use-ironically/963827 "2022-05-02T17:38:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-only-word-youre-not-allowed-to-use-ironically/963827/21 "2022-05-06T15:21:59Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> So . . . It’s your two assumptions that “not allowed” can also only be taken in a strictly literal way, and that this is actually not illegal is a valid argument?
Two? No, just the first. And I _did_ say it was pedantic.
> [@lissener](#):
>
> How did you convince yourselves that I was talking in the strictest legalese, rather than the obvious fact that I meant that if you used “literally” incorrectly you offer yourself up to an entire Internet of opprobrium? (Can we take the inevitable hijack of debating the strictest definition of the word “entire” as a given?)
Right - the internet, which is famously intolerant of non-traditional uses of speech.
> [@lissener](#):
>
> Your arguments are only valid if you actually completely misconstrued my post in every conceivable way, when in the context of this thread that it’s a million percent\* obvious that I was speaking figuratively and hyperbolically.
I think you’re off by about 999,999 percentage points. There’s almost no context at all in this thread to tell us what you’re actually talking about. “The only word you are ONLY allowed to use literally is ‘literally’” reads as a basic defense of prescriptivist language. I don’t see anything here that would suggest that you were _complaining_ about prescriptivists. I mean, before this last post, you’d written literally four sentences in this thread, and the first two don’t make any actual sense: the OP is grammatically correct, but who is complaining about people using the word “ironic” ironically? That’s literally not a thing that happens, ever. And then there’s this word salad:
> [@lissener](#):
>
> Lol tnank thats exactly the cause i stated for the effect of not being allowed to use “ironically” ironically.
… which I dare any reader to make sense of.
So, yeah, “And the only word you are ONLY allowed to use literally is ‘literally,’” was the first thing you posted here that could be parsed for any kind of useful meaning, and there’s nothing to indicate that you weren’t expressing your own opinion. Sorry for misconstruing you, but I feel this failure of communication is much more on you than on me.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2022, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-only-word-youre-not-allowed-to-use-ironically/963827/22 "2022-05-08T08:04:18Z")
The word that is _always_ spelled wrong is “wrong”.
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### Author:  [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2022, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-only-word-youre-not-allowed-to-use-ironically/963827/23 "2022-05-08T09:34:44Z")
Except if you spell it “rong“.
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