Euphemism

A euphemism is a gentle word that is used instead of a harsher word which someone may feel is offensive or unpleasant to hear.
It looks like somebody needs to do their business.

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WotD: Euphemism

Quite often, English language learners have difficulty understanding the meaning of what a native speaker says.

Sometimes, this is because the native speaker is using a euphemism.


A euphemism is a gentle word used instead of a harsher word that someone may find offensive or unpleasant to hear.


Let’s look at the word toilet, for example.

Some people feel uncomfortable asking, ‘Excuse me, where is the toilet?’ and to some people, this is impolite as well.

Therefore, people will ask, ‘Excuse me, where is the ladies’ room?’

They use ‘the ladies’ room’ as a euphemism for ‘toilet’.


This post is likely to be understood by a reader who has at least an 8th-grade education (age 13-14) and should be fairly easy for most adults to read.

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 64.   

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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