You’re entitled to know that this post is entitled “Entitled vs. Titled.” If that sounds weird, well, it is. English is weird sometimes. When you finish reading this, English will still be weird, but at least you’ll understand it a little bit bitter!
Titled and entitled are two words that often get mixed up. They’re synonyms, so they mean the same thing: both refer to the title of something, such as the title of this blog post. But just to make things confusing, entitled also has other meanings that have nothing to do with something’s title.
As mentioned above, titled and entitled both refer to the proper title of something: a book, a movie, or even this blog. To clarify how each can be used in this way, take a look at these examples:
Now onto the areas where entitled and titled differ. When a person feels entitled to something, it means that there’s something that she feels she deserves.
For example, you’ve probably heard someone of more mature years complaining about younger generations being entitled, or having a sense of entitlement. When describing someone else as entitled, we usually mean someone who thinks he deserves special treatment without having earned it. For example:
If you feel that you deserve something, and others disagree, they’ll think you have an undue sense of entitlement. Where it gets confusing is that you might genuinely be entitled to something. Commonly, however, entitled is used in a negative way, to portray someone as expecting more than he or she has earned. Below, we’ll explore more deeply how the word is used when it’s true—when someone is genuinely entitled to something but didn’t get it.
In the first two examples below, a factory employee named Bob is truly entitled to something. In the third example, a factory employee named Bob has a sense of entitlement that’s undue.
As you can see in the two examples above, hardworking Bob had a sense of entitlement that was completely fair, as he was genuinely owed things by his employer that that employer failed to make good on.
Now let’s look at an example of the word being used negatively, for someone who felt entitled for no good reason.
From these examples, you can see how someone might truly be entitled but also how at other times, that sense of entitlement might not have been earned.
Let’s sum up the similarities and differences one last time:
Now that you know the difference, you’re entitled to relax for the rest of the day. Maybe even read a book titled One Hundred Reasons Why You’re the Best Person Ever. But if you’re at work, your boss might think you’re lazy and entitled. Just don’t blame us if you get in trouble!
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This has been very useful. Thank you