Here’s another installment of Word Knots, where we look at common instances of words that are often confused or misused. 

Our source for this installment is The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books). This is a great book to browse: I highly recommend it.

We avoid taking a stern ‘grammar police’ approach: we always try to simply point out examples of semantic confusion that should be considered “must to avoid.”

From Fiske:

purposefully

Misused for purposely.

As Fiske says:

Purposely means on purpose or deliberately. Purposefully means with a specific purpose in mind.

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This error usually occurs out of sheer carelessness or when someone tries to needlessly fancify what they’re trying to say.  It’s hit or miss whether AI would catch it. 

Let’s look at the most relevant Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary definitions:

purposeful

adjective

1  : full of determination : guided by a definite aim 

2  : serving as, being directed to, or indicating the existence of a purpose or object: not aimless or meaningly

—purposefully

    adverb

purposely

adverb

    : with a deliberate or an express purpose : on purpose : intentionally, designedly, expressly

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Granted the distinctions are somewhat subtle. The best way to differentiate between the two words is to use purposefully when there is a definite goal and use purposely when all that is meant is that something is being done deliberately.

Let’s look at examples of each.

We purposely visited White Sands National Park at sunset.

I was purposefully photographing flowers at sunset: I wanted to capture the light.

Paying attention to word choice is critical. This is another case where consulting a legitimate dictionary may be advisable to ensure that your intended meaning is clear.

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