It's far more important to be understood than it is to be correct.

Is a brontosaurus a dinosaur? It's complicated But the fact is many people won't know what a sauropod is.

There are times when it's okay to be wrong. There's a difference between appealing to the lowest common denominator and communicating to the same.

Language

My speech coach used to say that anything can be a word. The purpose of language is to convey meaning, and if meaning is conveyed, you did it. If I ask you to open the grinad and you understand that by grinad I mean door, I've communicated. Is grinad a word now? Why not?

I'm a strong descriptivist, and every dictionary says they are as well. That is, the dictionary does not prescribe how words can be used (prescriptivism), they describe how they are being used. Languages evolve and change. Should you use grinad to mean door? Probably not!

Just like how you might alter your vocabulary depending on whether you're speaking to a child, an expert, or a peer.

See Also

Categorization — all #models are wrong, some are useful.
(Skip The) 100 level courses
Don't Learn From Experts (it's Impossible)
Tone Policing
#communication