By far the most insidious use of “widely,” however, occurs when the word refers to a manifestly small number of people who nonetheless share the writer’s view. Earlier this year, for instance, a writer for the Los Angeles Times began his column by noting that “it is widely held that the dopiest anti-Obamacare lawsuit is King vs. Burwell.” And an editor at the New Republic observed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is “widely considered one of the most socially inept candidates.” Maybe both these statements are true and I am irritated by them only because, not sharing the writers’ political views, I am not included in their uses of “widely.” But when the New Yorker, in a highly flattering profile of Secretary of State John Kerry, refers offhandedly to “George W. Bush, who is widely considered the worst President of the modern era,” I am pretty sure that that “widely” does not mean what most of us mean when we use it.

Surely a “widely considered” opinion must be shared by almost everyone who has an opinion on the subject. In any case, most people do not actually believe George W. Bush to have been the worst president of the modern era. Ask anyone.