I have a few: I was in high school when I learned it was Taj Mahal instead of "Tajma Hall." I thought it was "minus well" until I was like 20. (Instead of "might as well.") And I just recently realized that planets must have phases like the moon, and they must be most visible in their "full moon" phase. I'm not quite sure what I thought before because I know planets don't give off their own light. I guess I had just never actually thought about the details of this before, and it wasn't taught to me in school.

Is there anything you had the wrong idea about for a long time?

I guess its the current version for entropy of a black hole. I recognized it on Hawkins tombstone, but I don't know when pi was added or the denominator reduced.

Or how even educated people still use jargon instead of correct terminology.

It won't be long before I resume the stand of misunderstanding.

I used to pronounce certain words (awry, Protestant, indict) very wrong because I had only ever read them, until I said them out loud and was made fun of for each one ?

it took me 21 years to learn that pecorino cheese is, in fact, made with sheep milk eVEN THO IT'S LITERALLY IN THE NAME?? pecora means sheep in italian and idk how i never connected the dots before

Took me forever to fully understand the quote "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again". My sister went through a Steven King phase as one does, and she'd quote it every once in a while. I never understood until later when someone was talking about hosiery. I always thought it was a water hose.

Also I was sick one time while I was in high school and they taught polar vs non polar in chemistry class. I never got a full description or understanding of the subject from MULTIPLE TEACHERS. MORE THAN ONE. They always said "it won't matter, it won't come up in a test."

Guess who'd always get a couple questions wrong because there was a polar or non polar question on a test. Including an exam. :)

that's actually a quote from Silence of the Lambs! it is in fact about a water hose haha

This made me, for the first time in over a decade, try to find the context. I thought I hecking cracked the code. I've never seen the movie, so I didn't have context. I've now seen a clip. Technology is wonderful.

I'm still frazzled and a little angry. But I'm at least a little more knowledgeable. Context is really helpful.

Now... if someone, in laymen's terms, wants to explain how you find out if an element is polar or non polar I'd enjoy that as well. Every time i look it up my brain gets squiggly and I don't understand.

I watched a bunch of submarine movies...I finally really realized, that no, submarines do not have windows they can peep out of underwater. They are feeling around in the dark down there with sonar and calculations with sea floor maps.

I learned today that scallops have a "top" and bottom" (or left shell and right shell, however you want to look at it). And each side is different in depth and color. And here I always thought both halves of a scallop was the same. Also they have dozens of tiny blue eyes, when I thought they were blind.

i thought tenure was "ten year" and professors got it after working for ten years

Same!

that used to happen to me too. My written vocabulary has always been way better than the oral one because how often do you ever need to say some of those words.

Periphery, for example, I used to think was "pear ee fair ee " instead of "per if ary"

In school, in French class we were taught rules of pronunciation for new words, but I don't ever remember getting that in English class.

yeah honestly! English is such a confusing language anyway since it's an amalgamation of so many other languages. one rule can override others and it's like... why... I still remember being upset in 2nd grade when we learned about "ph" sounding like "f" haha

Funny, I remember being annoyed that C could be either K or S sounds. It would be so much simpler to use k or s, why bother with the c?

I used to be REALLY confused as a child over the concept of warm milk. I had always been told not to drink warm milk (aka milk that had been sitting out on a counter or whatever), but then would always read/see stories about a child requesting a glass of warm milk before bed to fall asleep. I always thought they were poisoning themselves?? I learned later, of course, that warming milk over the stove was way different than it being warm simply because it was sitting around exposed to air/bacteria for hours out of refrigeration. :P

What I heard: What is black and white and red all over? (A newspaper??? But it's not red???)

What the joke actually was: What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper! It finally makes sense!

I finally got it literally a month ago when I saw the word read written out... It took me almost three decades of existence on this earth to finally get it... I can't believe... I'm so dumb.... x)

This is dumb but I learned literally a week ago that Sylvester Stalone was really in boxing ????? lmao I thought he just played as a boxer in Rocky ????? I learned this from my partner and his friend and they were really baffled and speechless for like five minutes oof