Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Miscellaneous Entries. irrelevance; irrelevancy. The former is generally preferred. The only plural form, however, is “irrelevancies.” irreligious; unreligious. Both words essentially mean “not religious.” But “irreligious” often suggests conscious indifference or even hostility toward religion. “Unreligious” is the more neutral term. irreparable is pronounced /i-REP-uh-ruh-buhl/. irresistible. So spelled — not “irresistable.” irrespective of = regardless of. E.g.: “Irrespective of the bomb’s part in the outcome of World War II, we all owe President Truman our gratitude for another reason.” “Bomb’s Lessons,” Phoenix Gaz., 13 Feb. 1995, at B12. Confusion of the words “irrespective” and “regardless” has given rise to the semiliterate “irregardless.” irrevocable; unrevokable. The first — the preferred form — is pronounced /i-REV-uh-kuh-buhl/, not /ir-uh-VOH-kuh-buhl/. “Unrevokable” is a needless variant. For information about the Language-Change Index click here. Quotation of the Day: “Works of art are not so much finished as abandoned. Perhaps poems can be perfect. A short-short story might even be perfectible, as effective and enjoyable for one reader as the next. But novels and other book-length narratives are great rambling things that always contain some flaws. For works of any length, there comes a point when your continued tinkering won’t improve the whole, but will just trade one set of problems for another.” Bruce Holland Rogers, Word Work 246 (2002). ====================