You Keep Using That Word I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

2007Image Macro / Catchphraseclassic

Also known as: Inigo Montoya Meme · You Keep Using That Word

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means is a 2007 catchphrase image macro from The Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya, used to humorously correct misuse of vocabulary.

"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means" is a catchphrase and image macro from the 1987 film *The Princess Bride*, delivered by the character Inigo Montoya after his boss Vizzini repeatedly misuses the word "inconceivable"1. The scene appeared online via YouTube in 2007 and was picked up in forum arguments shortly after, with the Advice Animal-style image macro format appearing on Reddit in 2011 and peaking around 20122. It became the internet's go-to response for politely correcting someone who clearly doesn't understand the word they just used.

movie quote memesimage macro memesadvice animalssarcasm memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

The meme features a still image of actor Mandy Patinkin as the swordsman Inigo Montoya, typically with white Impact font text overlaid in the Advice Animal style2. The top line reads "You keep using that word" (sometimes specifying which word), and the bottom reads "I do not think it means what you think it means." The format sat alongside contemporaries like Good Guy Greg and Bad Luck Brian during the Advice Animal era's peak2. People deploy it as a reaction in comment threads, social media posts, and online debates whenever someone confidently uses a word incorrectly1.

The line comes from the 1987 fantasy comedy *The Princess Bride*, directed by Rob Reiner and adapted by William Goldman from his own 1973 novel3. In the film, Sicilian criminal Vizzini (played by Wallace Shawn) keeps exclaiming "Inconceivable!" as events go sideways on his plans2. After one too many misuses, his companion Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) turns to him and says: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means"1.

A YouTube channel called Bagheadclips uploaded the clip on February 4, 20074. The video collected over 644,000 views by mid-2012 and quickly found its way into online arguments as a correction tool2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (clip upload), Reddit (image macro format)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2007 (online), 2011 (image macro format)

The line comes from the 1987 fantasy comedy *The Princess Bride*, directed by Rob Reiner and adapted by William Goldman from his own 1973 novel. In the film, Sicilian criminal Vizzini (played by Wallace Shawn) keeps exclaiming "Inconceivable!" as events go sideways on his plans. After one too many misuses, his companion Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) turns to him and says: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means".

A YouTube channel called Bagheadclips uploaded the clip on February 4, 2007. The video collected over 644,000 views by mid-2012 and quickly found its way into online arguments as a correction tool.

How It Spread

The YouTube clip started showing up in Reddit comment threads as early as January 2008. By 2010, the quote was also appearing on 4chan boards to call out incorrect terminology.

The meme's most recognizable form arrived on June 18, 2011, when the first Advice Animal-style image macro was posted to Reddit's /r/AdviceAnimals. That particular image used "decimate" as its example of misuse, tapping into a long-running pedantic debate: the word originally described a Roman military punishment of killing one in every ten soldiers, but modern English uses it to mean widespread destruction. The format spread quickly to other subreddits, and by mid-2012 the Quickmeme page had 640 submissions while the Memegenerator page featured over 1,800 entries.

Beyond Reddit, instances appeared on Memebase, Tumblr (under the tag "I do not think it means what you think it means"), and other platforms throughout 2012. The meme peaked during this period, riding the same Advice Animal wave that defined early 2010s internet humor. TV Tropes created a dedicated page for the trope "You Keep Using That Word," cataloguing hundreds of examples of characters misusing words across film, television, comics, and fan fiction, all anchored to the *Princess Bride* line.

How to Use This Meme

The standard format places a screenshot of Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya with white Impact font text:

1

Top text: "You keep using that word [X]" where X is the word being called out, or simply "You keep using that word"

2

Bottom text: "I do not think it means what you think it means"

Cultural Impact

*The Princess Bride* was not a box office smash on release but grew into a beloved cult film over the following decades. TV Tropes naming an entire trope category after the Montoya line was an unusual crossover between internet meme culture and media criticism. The page tracks word-misuse gags across comics, animation, fan fiction, and live-action media, making Montoya's quote a formal cataloguing term for a storytelling device.

Mandy Patinkin's connection to the role went beyond the meme. He has spoken about using the revenge scene as a way to symbolically fight the cancer that killed his real father, giving the character an emotional weight that fans have connected with for decades.

Fun Facts

The very first image macro in this format targeted the word "decimate," making a case that it should only mean "destroy one-tenth" based on its Roman military origins.

TV Tropes named an entire trope category after the quote, tracking word-misuse gags across hundreds of media properties in one of the meme's most unusual legacies.

Mandy Patinkin has called *The Princess Bride* his most personally meaningful role, saying he channeled his grief over his father's death from cancer into the revenge scene.

*The Princess Bride* produced at least four distinct meme formats from a single film, including "Inconceivable!," the Inigo Montoya revenge quote, and the "Classic Blunders" speech.

Derivatives & Variations

"Inconceivable!" standalone meme:

Vizzini's catchphrase became its own reaction image for expressing disbelief, directly referenced by TV Tropes as the trope's foundational example[1].

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya" macro:

Montoya's revenge monologue spawned a fill-in-the-blank template: "Hello, my name is [X]. You [did something]. Prepare to [consequence]"[2].

Word-specific variants:

Dedicated macros targeting commonly misused words like "literally," "ironic," and "theory" became popular sub-genres of the format[2].

"You Fell Victim to One of the Classic Blunders":

Another *Princess Bride* quote that became its own image macro, often grouped with the Montoya meme in compilations[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

You Keep Using That Word I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

2007Image Macro / Catchphraseclassic

Also known as: Inigo Montoya Meme · You Keep Using That Word

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means is a 2007 catchphrase image macro from The Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya, used to humorously correct misuse of vocabulary.

"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means" is a catchphrase and image macro from the 1987 film *The Princess Bride*, delivered by the character Inigo Montoya after his boss Vizzini repeatedly misuses the word "inconceivable". The scene appeared online via YouTube in 2007 and was picked up in forum arguments shortly after, with the Advice Animal-style image macro format appearing on Reddit in 2011 and peaking around 2012. It became the internet's go-to response for politely correcting someone who clearly doesn't understand the word they just used.

movie quote memes image macro memes advice animals sarcasm memes early 2010s memes

Overview

The meme features a still image of actor Mandy Patinkin as the swordsman Inigo Montoya, typically with white Impact font text overlaid in the Advice Animal style. The top line reads "You keep using that word" (sometimes specifying which word), and the bottom reads "I do not think it means what you think it means." The format sat alongside contemporaries like Good Guy Greg and Bad Luck Brian during the Advice Animal era's peak. People deploy it as a reaction in comment threads, social media posts, and online debates whenever someone confidently uses a word incorrectly.

The line comes from the 1987 fantasy comedy *The Princess Bride*, directed by Rob Reiner and adapted by William Goldman from his own 1973 novel. In the film, Sicilian criminal Vizzini (played by Wallace Shawn) keeps exclaiming "Inconceivable!" as events go sideways on his plans. After one too many misuses, his companion Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) turns to him and says: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means".

A YouTube channel called Bagheadclips uploaded the clip on February 4, 2007. The video collected over 644,000 views by mid-2012 and quickly found its way into online arguments as a correction tool.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (clip upload), Reddit (image macro format)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2007 (online), 2011 (image macro format)

The line comes from the 1987 fantasy comedy *The Princess Bride*, directed by Rob Reiner and adapted by William Goldman from his own 1973 novel. In the film, Sicilian criminal Vizzini (played by Wallace Shawn) keeps exclaiming "Inconceivable!" as events go sideways on his plans. After one too many misuses, his companion Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) turns to him and says: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means".

A YouTube channel called Bagheadclips uploaded the clip on February 4, 2007. The video collected over 644,000 views by mid-2012 and quickly found its way into online arguments as a correction tool.

How It Spread

The YouTube clip started showing up in Reddit comment threads as early as January 2008. By 2010, the quote was also appearing on 4chan boards to call out incorrect terminology.

The meme's most recognizable form arrived on June 18, 2011, when the first Advice Animal-style image macro was posted to Reddit's /r/AdviceAnimals. That particular image used "decimate" as its example of misuse, tapping into a long-running pedantic debate: the word originally described a Roman military punishment of killing one in every ten soldiers, but modern English uses it to mean widespread destruction. The format spread quickly to other subreddits, and by mid-2012 the Quickmeme page had 640 submissions while the Memegenerator page featured over 1,800 entries.

Beyond Reddit, instances appeared on Memebase, Tumblr (under the tag "I do not think it means what you think it means"), and other platforms throughout 2012. The meme peaked during this period, riding the same Advice Animal wave that defined early 2010s internet humor. TV Tropes created a dedicated page for the trope "You Keep Using That Word," cataloguing hundreds of examples of characters misusing words across film, television, comics, and fan fiction, all anchored to the *Princess Bride* line.

How to Use This Meme

The standard format places a screenshot of Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya with white Impact font text:

1

Top text: "You keep using that word [X]" where X is the word being called out, or simply "You keep using that word"

2

Bottom text: "I do not think it means what you think it means"

Cultural Impact

*The Princess Bride* was not a box office smash on release but grew into a beloved cult film over the following decades. TV Tropes naming an entire trope category after the Montoya line was an unusual crossover between internet meme culture and media criticism. The page tracks word-misuse gags across comics, animation, fan fiction, and live-action media, making Montoya's quote a formal cataloguing term for a storytelling device.

Mandy Patinkin's connection to the role went beyond the meme. He has spoken about using the revenge scene as a way to symbolically fight the cancer that killed his real father, giving the character an emotional weight that fans have connected with for decades.

Fun Facts

The very first image macro in this format targeted the word "decimate," making a case that it should only mean "destroy one-tenth" based on its Roman military origins.

TV Tropes named an entire trope category after the quote, tracking word-misuse gags across hundreds of media properties in one of the meme's most unusual legacies.

Mandy Patinkin has called *The Princess Bride* his most personally meaningful role, saying he channeled his grief over his father's death from cancer into the revenge scene.

*The Princess Bride* produced at least four distinct meme formats from a single film, including "Inconceivable!," the Inigo Montoya revenge quote, and the "Classic Blunders" speech.

Derivatives & Variations

"Inconceivable!" standalone meme:

Vizzini's catchphrase became its own reaction image for expressing disbelief, directly referenced by TV Tropes as the trope's foundational example[1].

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya" macro:

Montoya's revenge monologue spawned a fill-in-the-blank template: "Hello, my name is [X]. You [did something]. Prepare to [consequence]"[2].

Word-specific variants:

Dedicated macros targeting commonly misused words like "literally," "ironic," and "theory" became popular sub-genres of the format[2].

"You Fell Victim to One of the Classic Blunders":

Another *Princess Bride* quote that became its own image macro, often grouped with the Montoya meme in compilations[2].

Frequently Asked Questions