Monday, November 5, 2007

a myriad of misuses

i know i promised you apostrophes next, but that will take a longer post. after two misuses this weekend (one on "NPR" this morning), "myriad" jumped to the top of my peeve list.

sure, "myriad" is a cool word, but it is possibly one of the more frequently misused words with regards not to definition, but to part of speech. most know that myriad means "many", but it seems not enough know that "myriad" is an adjective, not a noun. it's commonly misused as a synonym for "plethora", which is of course a noun.

example of misuse: "there are a myriad of things wrong with this government."
correct usage: "there are myriad things wrong with this government."

there's today's lesson. apostrophes soon, i swear.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would you say I had a...'plethora' of pinatas?

Myriad

fink said...

i know that i do not have your superior intellect, but it could be that you are angry at something else?

Anonymous said...

Do you even know what a 'plethora' is??