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The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter―it's the difference between the lightening and the lightning.1
Consider my shock when I recently read the following sentence in a book: "Consider that it is far more likely for someone to be struck twice by lightening if they live on a property that attracts electricity.2" "Lightening" is the present participle of "to lighten", meaning to make lighter either in the sense of less dark or less heavy3. So, "lightening" refers to the process of something becoming lighter.
What would it mean for someone to be "struck" by lightening even once, let alone twice? If you take GLP-1 and lose a lot of weight in a short time, are you struck by lightening? I suppose if you put down a heavy object you've been carrying a long time, you might be struck by a sudden sensation of lightness. But what would that have to do with living "on a property that attracts electricity"?
Obviously, the word intended in the sentence was "lightning", with no "e". "Lightning" refers to the familiar electrical discharge that occurs in the atmosphere during storms and is followed by thunder4. Moreover, the phrase "struck by lightning" is the common way of describing what happens when lightning passes through an object. That lightning is an electrical phenomenon explains why living on a property that attracts electricity would increase the chance of being struck.
Misspelling "lightning" by adding an incorrect "e" is a common enough error that I've seen it more than once before coming upon the example above, so my shock at seeing it was not quite like being struck by lightning. Two of my reference books on common errors in English mention the "lightning" versus "lightening" confusion, which is further evidence that this error is common5.
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