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There are millions of words in languages and it is impossible to know every one of them. Even linguists, writers, and literary critics whose main object in their work is words and language didn't memorize whole dictionaries.

There are words that you would expect others to know, because they are just common sense knowledge. But there are words that are used more rarely in everyday conversations and this is where misunderstandings can happen. Twitter user @daynamcalpine_ actually went on date with a guy who thought she was a necrophiliac when, in reality, she meant she might have narcolepsy.

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#1

Not-Knowing-Word-Meanings

daynamcalpine_ Report

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Yuki Li
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol after my grandfather died my grandmiother went around telling people he died of a v@gina heart instead of an angina heart.

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The twitter user Dayna McAlpine is a journalist writing about Scotland and food. She told a short story how she went on a date and mentioned that she thought she might have narcolepsy, which is a sleep disorder making people sleepy all the time and constantly tired. But the word can be easily confused with necrophilia because they sound similar. It has nothing to do with sleeping and actually is a crime in some places.

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Not-Knowing-Word-Meanings

kcrachel Report

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glowworm2
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Good riddance then. He found a monogamous relationship to be monotonous.

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#3

Not-Knowing-Word-Meanings

ValleyGirlLift Report

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Miss Cris
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And after the waiter appears covered in spinach, give a card to your mother and say "I'm free in ten minutes" ;)

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SobyKay
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can't imagine a world where spinach fetish is a thing 😆😆

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fuggnuggins
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not actually what fetish means and if I was one of those waiters it'd be more like "Yeah funny ha ha you're shitfaced off one shandy hurry up and tell us what you DO want, we have customers."

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Tobias the Tiger
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To be fair, I have heard stories of people thinking "fetish" was another word for "interest".

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fuggnuggins
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can be a strong like. Maybe you have a fetish for chocolate. Could be a strong connection. If a ghost were to haunt a particular object or place, you could say that that is its fetish. Could be an obsession. Magpie (Australian) swoops aggressively, often targeting a type of thing more often, like maybe bikes with flags, people with helmets, people who run. What it targets consistently is the magpie's fetish. It's a fairly versatile word. The sexual meaning is just the only context that a lot of people hear it in, so they might not realise or might just make that connection quickly.

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Debra Robinson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hmm-I hate green peas(except for snow peas and sugar snap), cooked spinach, turnip greens/bulbs asparagus, rutabagas, and mustard greens. I also usually won't eat things they touch, either.

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Terry Tobias
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If she can't touch those veggies, how could she have a legitimate fetish for them? Isn't touching part of the fetish? (I don't know much about this lifestyle)

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The tweet got nearly 70k likes and in general people were just laughing or confused how the date reacted so calmly when he heard that she is attracted to dead bodies. Some people shared a few of their own stories about others misunderstanding words or not knowing the true meanings of them. 

#4

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Sir_Possum Report

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glowworm2
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Animal husbandry does kind of sound like that though. It's an odd term to be honest.

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Ryan Deschanel
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I mean "someone who is not homophobic", I just use the term "a decent person".

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#7

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It is hard to count how many words a person knows but there are tests which can help to estimate that number. UPI studied the results of one million test-takers and they came to the conclusion that “native English-speaking Americans know an average of at least 42,000 words by the time they turn 20 years old.” 

This research was conducted in 2016 and with it we found out that a person knows more words than previously thought as in 2013 The Economist said that this number is about 20,000–35,000 words. But people don’t use their whole vocabulary everyday and 20,000 words is what is sufficient for normal communication. Which is really not that many when you know that there are about 170,000 current words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary and the most recent printing of Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language has more than 476,000 vocabulary entries

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cowboyorange Report

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Miranda Meehan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm not convinced the OP didn't read the banner incorrectly. I've seen a banner that uses the proper word.

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Martz Migraña
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of a friend that wanted to be a teacher for special needs kids, like "Baptists kids". She meant "autistic" (in Spanish "bautista" and "autista")

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Words can be confusing and everyone has a different set of them they use actively and know passively, so it’s better not to assume what someone meant if you’re aren’t sure of the meaning of the word. However, it is still a great source of very funny situations.

Which of these made you laugh the most? Do you have any stories of when someone didn’t know the meaning of the word and it led to a funny situation? Maybe it was you who always thought a word has a different meaning than the dictionary says? Share it in the comments below!