Chaos – complete disorder and confusion.

“The dance floor descended into chaos.”

I’ve got a confession: I thought ‘chaos’ was pronounced ‘cha-OOZE’ for the longest time. This is what comes of being a bookworm as a child: there were many words I mispronounced (and occasional words I misunderstood the meaning of – I thought ‘embrace’ meant ‘kiss’ for ages). I knew also that there was the word kayoss, which coincidentally meant pretty much the same thing as cha-ooze, but in my head they were totally separate. (I was not helped, incidentally, by my mother’s insistence on pronouncing the word ‘CHOSS’ – however, my mother’s interesting grasp of language [she did know that one wasn’t correct] would make a whole post of its own…)