Are you like me? I hope so. Maybe like me you’ve grown tired of the overuse and misuse of the word “countless.” It means uncountable and should refer to such things as the sands of the sea or the stars in the universe; yet I hear it and read it almost daily used to describe things which are countable. It has become the adjective of choice for those who wish to impress the reader or sway the listener. An example comes from a recent opinion piece in the Herald by Keith Burns. He writes: “As part of my graduate research in Mormonism and sexuality, I have interviewed dozens of LGBTQ+ current or former members of the church. Tragically, countless individuals have described heinous acts of marginalization and othering from their own orthodox family members.” A sad occurrence, but “dozens” typically implies less than one hundred — a finite number. How he gets “countless” out of that is beyond me. It clouds his research and perpetuates the misuse of a word good for oceanographers and astronomers.