A dictionary should generally refuse to list a widespread misuse of a word as a legitimate meaning until careful writers have accepted it. 0.50 Agree Disagree

Argument TreesHow arguments are scored →

Weight for 0.00 · weight against 0.00 · net +0.00

Each reason is a claim with its own page. Score = sign x (2 x Truth - 1) x Conf x Link x Imp x Uniq, and every column is here so the row can be multiplied out and checked. A reason argued false scores negative and counts against the side it is filed on; a reason nobody has argued yet scores exactly 0, and so does one whose own page has no work behind it.

What Would Change the AnswerTruth scores →

Every claim beneath this page held at false and then at true, one at a time, with the whole graph recomputed each time. "If false" and "if true" are where this page’s truth score lands; "Move" is how far apart they are. "If settled" is that same distance with the input’s confidence held at 1, which is what it would be worth once the work behind it is finished, so the gap between Move and If settled is the value of doing that work. This is one input at a time and finds single points of failure; it does not test several inputs moving together, which is how correlated assumptions actually fail.

Related Beliefs

1. Dictionaries should generally record how people actually use words rather than rule on which uses are correct. 0.50
2. A dictionary should generally refuse to list a widespread misuse of a word as a legitimate meaning until careful writers have accepted it. (this page)

The other beliefs filed under Dictionaries; this one is listed unlinked.

Not filled in yet

Parts of the template nobody has filled in here. They are named rather than shown, because an empty table is not a finding, and each one is a reason the confidence above is not higher. A part that takes rows has a form for its first one.

What this page needs right now

Named gaps, read off the tables above, so a newcomer can see exactly where a contribution goes. None of them requires agreeing with the page, and each one links to the form it goes in.

What the numbers are made of

Share on the agree side

no scored weight either way

Confidence

32%. Weakest parts: scrutiny 0% · grounding 0%

Depended on

ReasonRank 0.0033, 101 of 2173

Strongest reason for

When a dictionary lists a common mistake as a meaning, readers take the entry as permission to use it, so the dictionary itself speeds the spread of the error. +0.00

Strongest reason against

Which uses of a word count as misuses depends on who is asked, so waiting for careful writers to approve a meaning hands a small group control over what a whole language is allowed to mean. -0.00

What would move this most

Settling When a dictionary lists a common mistake as a meaning, readers take t…: 0.50 if false, 0.50 if true

Coverage

Of 6 scored rows, 6 have no linkage page, 6 have no importance page, 6 have no uniqueness page. This page reads 6 other pages. 6 of them are one-sided or empty: When a dictionary lists a common mistake as a meaning, readers take the entry as permission to use it, so the dictionary itself speeds the spread of the error.; A dictionary earns its authority by being selective, and an entry that treats a misreading as a settled meaning spends that authority on a fashion that may not last.; Waiting until careful writers accept a new meaning costs little, because a use that truly enters the language will still be there when the dictionary catches up.; Which uses of a word count as misuses depends on who is asked, so waiting for careful writers to approve a meaning hands a small group control over what a whole language is allowed to mean.; A reader who meets a word in a common but disputed sense and cannot find that sense in the dictionary is left worse informed, which defeats the reason the dictionary exists.; Treating a widespread use of a word as an error mostly stigmatizes the speech of particular regions and social classes, and a reference work should not do that..

Bottom line

The disagreement turns on whether a meaning becomes real once enough people use it or only once careful writers accept it.

Structural Checks

Faults the shape of the argument can show without reading a word of it: a claim used to support itself, a conclusion listed among its own premises, the same page counted twice. None of these changes a score. The wiki also specifies pattern-matching the prose for ten named fallacies; that is deliberately not done here, because a matcher looking for “attacking the person rather than the argument” would fire on the central legitimate argument on this whole site, and a score moved by a regular expression has no page to appeal to.

Scoring EngineTruth scores →

Cite this page A dictionary should generally refuse to list a widespread misuse of a word as a legitimate meaning until careful writers have accepted it. Idea Stock Exchange, belief page dictionary-generally-refuse-list, truth 0.50, confidence 32%, revision 42c8344 of 2026-10-04. The revision is what makes this quotable: these numbers move as the argument is worked on, and rebuilding that revision reproduces them exactly.

Every number on this page as data: dictionary-generally-refuse-list.json. Constants: K = 1 · UNARG = 0.5 · DEFLINK = 1 · DEFIMP = 0.5 · DEFUNIQ = 1. A reason placed under a conclusion is presumed relevant until a linkage page says otherwise; the burden is on the challenger. The neutral start for importance, the wiki's own rule.

Every value here is computed from the tables above at build time. Nothing is typed.