9. Redundant
What you think it means: Repetitive。你认为单词的含义是：重复的。
What it really means: Unnecessarily excessive。单词的真正含义是：过剩的。
This one is tough because you can use it wrong but unintentionally use it right. When you repeat something a bunch of times, it can become redundant, but redundant expands far beyond just repeating things over and over. A popular thing companies are doing now is firing people but instead of calling it “getting fired,” they call it “eliminating redundancies。” The premise being that the employee they’re firing is unnecessary and excessive and they are thus eliminating them. In pretty much any scenario where there is simply too much of something, it is redundant。这个单词有点复杂，因为你可能总会用错，却也不一定什么时候就用对了。当你不断重复某事很多次后，事情可能就会变得redundant(多余的)，但是redundant这个词所包含的意思远不止“不断重复”。当下公司都很流行解聘雇员，但他们不会说“炒你鱿鱼”，而是称之为“裁员”;但前提是，被裁的员工是可有可无的、多余的，这样就可以裁掉了。在很多情况下，如果某事太多太剩，那就是redundant(多余的)了。
10. Enormity
What you think it means: Huge, enormous。你认为单词的含义是：巨大的，庞大的。
What it really means: Profoundly immoral or evil。单词的真正含义是：极其不道德的或邪恶的。
Don’t beat yourself up over this one because no one knows this one off the top of their head. Enormity sounds like enormous and as with many of our other examples, here we expect words that sound alike to have similar meanings. Enormity simply means really evil. An example of how to use it is the following: “The enormity of the crimes committed by the Nazis in World War II。” It doesn’t mean the enormous crimes, it means the heinous crimes。不要因为用错这个单词而自责，因为没多少人能不假思索地知道这个单词。Enormity(穷凶恶极)的发音和enormous(庞大的)比较相近，正如先前提过的许多例子一样，对于发音相似的单词，人们也很容易认为它们的意思也一样。Enormity是指“极其邪恶”。举个例子来说明如何使用这个单词吧。“纳粹分子在二战中犯下的罪行是enormity(穷凶恶极的)。”它不是说enormous(庞大的)罪行，而是指十恶不赦的罪行。
11. Terrific
What you think it means: Fantastic, good。你认为单词的含义是：妙极了，极好的。
What it really means: Horrific, to inspire fear。单词的真正含义是：可怖的，令人害怕的。
This is another one that we expect will be changed in the dictionary eventually because barely anyone uses the real meaning anymore. When people say they feel terrific, they mean to say they feel fantastic. An example of something terrific is King Kong. You see a giant monster and it inspires fear. We’re going to loop awesome in with this one too. Awesome simply means to inspire awe and people often use it to describe something really good。我们认为这个单词的含义以后也会在词典里重新修订，因为现在几乎没有人会去使用它的真正含义。当人们说感觉terrific(恐怖的)时，他们是指感觉fantastic(好极了)。《金刚》就是典型的terrific(可怖的)例子，因为它是巨怪，让人感到恐惧。在此顺便说说awesome这个单词吧。Awesome是指“让人感到惊惧”，但现在人们用这个词的时候主要是指“某事好极了”。
12. Effect
What you may think it means: To cause something to change。你以为单词的含义是：引起某事发生变化。
What it really means: An event that causes a change。单词的真正含义是：引起变化事件。
A lot of people staunchly
defend the wrong definition of this and it’s understandable. When action A causes a change in object B, action A affected object B and object B has been affected. Effect is an event that causes a change. In our prior example, action A is, in and of itself, an effect because it affects things. It’s admittedly confusing to explain but easy to remember. If it’s a noun, it’s an effect. If it’s a verb, it’s an affect。很多人是错误用法的拥趸者，这是可以理解的。当行动A导致事物B发生变化，行动A影响了事物B，因此，事物B受到了影响。Effect其实是指引起变化的事件。在先前的例子中，行动A本身就是个effect(事件)，因为它影响了事物。不得不说，这么解释起来很容易引起困惑，不过记起来却不难。如果是名词，那就是effect(事件);如果是动词，那就是affect(影响)。