A rigid consensus on inclusion criteria for this list has not been reached. It is preferred to propose new items on the talk page first.
Any proposed new entries to the article must at least fulfill the following:
The common misconception's main topic has an article of its own.
The item is reliably sourced, both with respect to the factual contents of the item and the fact that it is a common misconception.
The common misconception is mentioned in its topic article with sources.
The common misconception is current, as opposed to ancient or obsolete.
If you have an item to add that does not fulfill these criteria but you still think should be included, please suggest it on the talk page with your rationale for inclusion.
This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
List of common misconceptions is a former featured list candidate. Please view the link under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the article for featured list status.
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The misconception is that tariffs are paid by the exporting country when in fact tariffs are paid by the people who import the goods; the fees are then passed on to the consumer, so ultimately it's the consumer who pays the tariffs, not the exporting country.
I would like to point out the "tariff" word is borrowed by Russian language (tarifikatsiya, tarif, etc.) as a Runglish-class word used for pricing in things like utility bills, phone bills etc. So, maybe "tariff" word misconception is about the origin of the word + the way how it ended up in different parts of the world? Thus... "historical". 81.89.66.133 (talk) 11:45, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
referring to USSR vs referring to Russians in movies
The same article page might say 2 contradicting things concerning leads in pencils.
1. The Fisher Space Pen was not commissioned by NASA at a cost of millions of dollars, while the Soviets used pencils. Pencils posed a major risk to astronauts due to the release of substances such as shavings and pencil lead being a flight hazard.
2. Although the core of a wooden pencil is commonly referred to as "lead", wooden pencils do not contain the chemical element lead, nor have they ever contained it; "black lead" was formerly a name of graphite, which is commonly used for pencil leads.~2025-39278-23 (talk) 08:39, 8 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
"pencil lead" in the first quote refers to the "lead" inside a pencil, which is not the chemical element lead, which is explained in the quote from the second entry. I don't see a contradiction. Catfish and sea horses are neither cats nor horses, similarly pencil lead is not the chemical element lead. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 20:20, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The gentleman can be credited with the invention of the phrase "flying saucers". To differentiate between him describing something as "flying like a saucer" and subsequent descriptions in the media of "flying saucers" is overly pedantic. ~2026-80606 (talk) 23:56, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
... calm down. The entry is "American pilot Kenneth Arnold did not coin the term flying saucer; he did not use that phrase when describing his 1947 UFO sighting at Mount Rainier, Washington. The East Oregonian, the first newspaper to report on the incident, merely quoted him as saying the objects "flew like a saucer" and were "flat like a pie pan"." In List of common misconceptions about history. Rollinginhisgrave (talk | edits) 02:25, 5 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
The editor who started this thread is correct: the entry is overly pedantic, and the article would be improved by removing that entry.
Entries like "It is a common misconception that the Earth is round. In fact, it is an oblate spheroid" only serve to diminish the articles we have in this space.
It does depend on how the sources are describing it. I'm a bit wary of excluding something as subjective as "pedantry" misconceptions, I would like to see a more robust explanation than "it's an improvement" and some formalization into the list criteria rather than having the formal list criteria and a secret, second list criteria only known to insiders. Rollinginhisgrave (talk | edits) 02:49, 5 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
Agree that we should reflect "how the sources are describing it" In this case, the first cite is an article with the title
"The Man Who Introduced the World to Flying Saucers".
The second source has the secondary title as
"Seventy years ago, Idaho pilot Kenneth Arnold saw something near Mount Rainier that brought the term “flying saucers” into the lexicon..."
I don't have access to cite 3, but cite 4 is titled:
"64th anniversary of flying saucers at Mt. Rainier"
Perhaps someone can produce a reliable source that unambiguously directly supports the assertion that he "did not coin the term", and at that point we can debate whether it outweighs the currently cited sources, but until then that entry needs to go according to WP:PROVEIT. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 03:37, 5 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
I reverted Rollinginhisgrave, and was re-reverted by them with a link to this discussion. Having read it, I now agree that the entry consists of synthesis and that it shouldn't be included. Chess enjoyer (talk) 04:57, 5 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
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