It’s a losing battle, I know, but here goes. A few months ago I wrote complaining of the misuse of the word “countless.” As an example, I referred to guest opinionist Keith Burns use of that adjective in describing “dozens” of interviews he had conducted. I guess he didn’t get the memo. Once again, countless means uncountable, too many of something to even begin to count, such as stars in the universe. In Mr. Burns latest opinion, he again uses the word, this time repeatedly, to describe things which may not be easy to count but are definitely countable. To quote one OF THREE examples, “…this binary portrayal contradicts countless biblical examples in which Jesus advocated for the impoverished,…” My Bible, and I assume his, has a front and a back cover making it a finite entity and therefore anything in it is COUNTABLE. His other two uses of countless also describe distinctly countable groups. I appreciate anyone sharing an opinion in public, but the force of argument is diminished if one uses imprecise words…such as countless, when tons, scads, lots, many, quite a few, a boatload, a pocketful, a number of, a handful, numerous, a good deal of, copious, profuse, sundry, umpteen, untold, abundant, myriad, divers or multitudinous will do.

Mark Johnson, Orem

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