BMJ  2006;333:445 (26 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7565.445

Filler

When I use a word

Sometimes, never

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

If something always happened, what percentage frequency would you assign to that event? Presumably 100%. And if something never happened? Presumably 0%. Well, not everyone shares that opinion. By "always" some mean as infrequently as 91% of the time, and "never" can mean as often as 2% of the time. The combined results of seven studies of what people mean when they use words such as always, commonly, often, frequently, occasionally, sometimes, seldom, rarely, and never are summarised in the table (for references see Drug Safety2005;28: 851-70). For comparison, I have also included definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary.

View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   Interpretations of words used to indicate frequencies

 

Look, for example, at "occasionally," "infrequently," and "seldom"; according to the dictionary they all mean roughly the same thing, but the frequencies that people think these words represent do not overlap at all. Perhaps the lexicographers should . . . [Full text of this article]

Oxford (jeffrey.aronson@clinpharm.ox.ac.uk)

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Strange things happen when we never qualify the frequency

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Aronson, J. (2009). When I use a word ... Declarative titles. QJM 0: hcp084v1-hcp084 [Full text]  
• Chambers, J. C (2006). Strange things happen when we never qualify the frequency.. BMJ 333: 550-550 [Full text]  

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Never

Gary Stack
bmj.com, 28 Aug 2006 [Full text]

Strange things happen when we never qualify the frequency

John C Chambers
bmj.com, 29 Aug 2006 [Full text]

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