Common
Scare quotes
Quotation marks used to indicate non-standard usage
Scare quotes
Scare quotes (also called shudder quotes or sneer quotes) are quotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to signal that they are using it in an ironic, referential, or otherwise non-standard sense. Scare quotes may indicate that the author is using someone else's term, similar to preceding a phrase with the expression "so-called"; they may imply skepticism, disagreement, sarcasm, or belief that the words enclosed in quotes are misused. Whether quotation marks are considered scare quotes depends on context, as scare quotes are not visually different from actual quotations. The use of scare quotes is sometimes discouraged in formal or academic writing.
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