“Sic” is a small word writers slip into a quote to show they are copying the original exactly, even if there’s a spelling mistake or odd wording. It basically means “yes, this is how it appeared.”
You’ll spot it in news articles, social-media screenshots, or essays when someone wants to point out a typo without fixing it. For example: “He wrote, ‘Their [sic] going to win!’” The writer keeps the mistake and adds [sic] so readers know the error isn’t theirs.
Meaning & Usage Examples
• “Recieved [sic] your email” – the sender spelled “received” wrong, but the quoter left it unchanged.
• “iPhones [sic] are the best” – the original text forgot the apostrophe, so [sic] shows it wasn’t added later.
• “We was [sic] happy to help” – highlights the grammar slip without editing the speaker’s words.
Context / Common Use
People use [sic] in tweets, court documents, and blogs to stay accurate and fair. It protects both the person being quoted and the writer doing the quoting.
Is [sic] always in brackets?
Usually yes, square brackets [sic] are the standard, though some styles use parentheses (sic).
Can I just fix the mistake instead?
If you want to stay true to the source, leave the error and add [sic]. Otherwise, paraphrase and skip the quote marks.
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