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The Eggcorn Database

The Eggcorn Database: "This site is devoted to collecting the kind of unusual English spellings that have come to be called eggcorns" An eggcorn is somewhat related to a mondegreen in that words are replaced and an example became the name for a whole category. An eggcorn, according to the site, results in the reshaping of a known phrase or word in a way that makes sense for the meaning of the word or phrase.

One of my favorites that is included in the eggcorn database is diffuse/defuse. Being a chemistry teacher, I take an exceptionally molecular view of the verb diffuse, and to diffuse a situation is downright hilarious to me.

While neither are true eggcorns, here are a few other reshapings (doesn't that sound better than misspelling?) that make me giggle: retarted for retarded (makes me think of reheating apple tarts) and neckless for necklace, which seems akin to the wreckless/reckless eggcorn.

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