I'll tell you. It is definitely "defiantly."

Now, I realize that it is due to spell checkers (and lazy people) but I searched Pinside and the word "defiantly" appears in 640+ posts, and I gave up trying to find posts where it was not used incorrectly in place of "definitely." I would wager that it is used incorrectly 100 times for every time it is used correctly. That's crazy!

The root word of "defiantly" is "defy," a verb. "Defiant" is an adjective built on that, and "defiantly" is an adverb built on that!

Whereas "definitely" the adverb is based on "definite" the adjective.

Now, cannot everyone see that "definite" is not the same word as "defiant?" It would seem so; when I searched for "defiant" I didn't see anyone using that word incorrectly.

So what's so confusing about adding an "ly" to the correct word?

Again, yes, we have spell check to thank for this phenomenon. Start a word with "defi," goof up the middle, add "ly," and spell check will ever so helpfully suggest "defiantly." Which is great, if that's the word you were after. But, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't accept the suggestion when it isn't!

Running this into the ground, it's probably the misspelling "definatly" that is the main culprit. Swap the "n" and "a" and there's "defiantly," which explains the spell check suggestion. Just remember, there is definitely no "a" in "definitely!"

I'm still astounded that anyone would say "ok, yeah, I meant defiantly" when they didn't!

DE_FI_ ANT_ LY
DE_ FIN_ ITE_ LY

I guess all I'm asking is for people to pay better attention. Rant over!

I use to deal with the idiots that think the past tense of "use" is "use."

This is all very entertaining, but I have yet to see another word identified that is used incorrectly 100x more than it is used correctly, the way "defiantly" is!

Except "payed" isn't a valid word.

I defiantly insist that "defiantly" takes the cake, for the narrow distinction I have invoked. Sorry, the thread title was too general. "... almost always used incorrectly" is what I was after.

Although it does occur to me that using it where you meant to use "definitely" isn't really using the word, it's attempting to use "definitely" and blundering.

I just thought it was interesting how almost every time it appears, the writer means "definitely."

An obscure nautical term that practically no one knows? Well, okay. I don't recall ever hearing of it, and I'm relatively well read. But I guess you're technically right in that "payed" shows up more often, about twice as much.

Still, at least "defiantly" is in common parlance. When someone writes "payed," no one thinks "I wonder if they mean they gave money or if they were sealing a hull?"

Also, "paid" and "payed" are homophones, unlike "defiantly" and "definitely."

I'm sure we agree there is no excuse for either error. But in virtually all cases, "payed" is simply a misspelling of "paid," not really a use or misuse of the nautical term. But thanks, I love to learn stuff!

Oh, it exists, irregardless of your ire.

It's nonstandard, but people have been saying it for over 200 years.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

ImNotNorm already brought it up in this thread.

I agree it's dumb.

Speaking of "dumb," that's another word we can argue about. Officially it means "unable to speak." Informal North American usage adds a meaning of "stupid." Looking it up, I was surprised that calling a mute person "dumb" is considered offensive. I wonder if that was always the case, or if the conflation with "stupid" has caused this, since simply being unable to speak is not necessarily an indication of low intelligence.

I didn't think the "deaf, dumb and blind boy" from Tommy sounded offensive, and "deaf, mute and blind" doesn't sound right...

Bzzzt! Wrong. "Which" is used when choosing among a limited number of predetermined choices.