Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
ENORMITY / ENORMOUSNESS
More and more, the noun enormity has come to be used in place of enormousness when referring to something extremely large in terms of size. However, the term enormity is best used in reference to something monstrous.
INCORRECT: The enormousness of the atrocities committed during wartime is difficult to imagine.
CORRECT: The enormity of the atrocities committed during wartime is difficult to imagine.
QUESTIONABLE: It takes an hour to walk from one end of the factory to the other due to the enormity of the building.
CORRECT/BETTER: It takes an hour to walk from one end of the factory to the other due to the enormousness of the building.
One might be tempted to use enormity in place of enormousness in the above example due to the awkwardness of the latter word, which interferes with the smooth flow of the sentence. However, to do so could be construed to imply that the building is evil, and unless you are Stephen King, that most likely is not your intention. Therefore, a better option might be to use the adjective enormous to convey the information in that sentence instead:
CORRECT: The factory is so enormous that it takes an hour to walk from one end of the building to the other.
This versatility of the English language is one of its greatest attributes, and aren’t we lucky to have the joyful duty of making good use of it?
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