This word is misused so often it is scary – or shocking if you can excuse the pun! In fact, last week I heard a TV host admit to murdering half of his contestants on national television!

electrocution: dying from electricity being applied to the body
He was electrocuted when he touched both live wires.

Electrocution, electrocuted, electrocute – whichever form of the word, it means being killed by electricity. Yet so many people talk about being electrocuted themselves – if you believe in ghosts, that could be possible but otherwise if the person is talking about it they were not electrocuted!

An electric shock on the other hand means feeling electricity through your body but you surive the experience – it can be as mild as the shock you get from synthetic carpets through to an almost fatal shock.

As for our TV host, he had given many of his contestants an electric shock but I’m pretty sure he hadn’t killed them despite saying he had electrocuted them.