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The Debate over "Irregardless" -- is it a Word?

posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 13 2020, @11:53AM   
from the First-to-Fall dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887540598/the-debate-over-the-word-irregardless-is-it-a-word

All right. Let's settle something here. The word irregardless - is it a word or is it not a word? Well, this is a debate that Merriam-Webster is now weighing in on in a tweet saying that it is, in fact, a word. And that has led to a whole lot of reaction online.

Merriam-Webster has confirmed that "irregardless" is a word in the dictionary, despite concerns from teachers that it is not.

So fellow Soylentils, irregardless of my opinion, what do your think?

See Also:
Is 'Irregardless' a Real Word?
Definition of irregardless

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Original Submission

• Re:Is it a word? Re:Is it a word? (Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Monday July 13 2020, @03:47PM (1 child)

  by inertnet (4071) on Monday July 13 2020, @03:47PM (#1020397) Journal

  I may have seen the word before, but it just sounds wrong to me. I'm not an American, nor am I a native speaker of any other version of English. But I do speak several other languages and I recognize the 'ir' prefix as a negation. Which makes 'irregardless' a tripping word for me, just like "its vs it's" errors. My reading flow, or reading speed, gets interrupted by language errors like that.

  Parent

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• Re:Is it a word? (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday July 13 2020, @04:09PM

  by EvilSS (1456) on Monday July 13 2020, @04:09PM (#1020415)

  Well, it should sound wrong, but contextually it should still be possible to discern the meaning when seeing it used. Plus being a non-native speaker I'm sure you have run across many situations where even proper English doesn't always strictly play by its own rules.

  Parent