In the **Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** (supplemental edition), the term "widely-used" is applied with a kind of gentle optimism and a flexible relationship with statistics.
> Definition: widely-used (adj). Adopted across large swathes of the known universe, or at least by more than five people in a pub.
To be *widely-used*, a thing need not actually be used *widely*, nor even *correctly*. It merely needs to have achieved a certain level of cultural seepage.
# Common Examples - **"Agile":** (a project management technique that no two humans agree on, but all claim to be using). - **"AI":** (anything from a neural net to an Excel macro with a god complex). - **"Password123":** worryingly still widely-used.
# Galactic Comparison On more advanced planets, widely-used is a legally binding metric maintained by sentient metadata organisms. On Earth, it’s decided by a mix of: * search engine autocomplete, * half-remembered TED Talks, * and the sheer force of marketing.
# Final Thought Being *Widely-Used* does not guarantee that something is **good**, **useful**, or **even functional**. It simply means that *enough beings, in enough timezones, have agreed—deliberately or accidentally—to pretend they know what it means*. Which, by Earth standards, is practically sacred.
# See - Notes