What is the difference between “nauseous” and “nauseated”?
A “Nauseous” means “causing nausea” or “sickening”; “nauseated” means “affected with nausea.” Dictionary.com offers this usage note: Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is properly used only to mean “causing nausea” and that it is incorrect to use it to mean “affected with nausea,” as in “Roller coasters make me nauseous.” In this example, “nauseated” is preferred by 72 percent of the Usage Panel. Curiously, though, 88 percent of the Panelists prefer using “nauseating” in the sentence, “The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseating (not nauseous) rides.” Since there is a lot of evidence to show that “nauseous” is widely used to mean “feeling sick,” it appears that people use “nauseous” mainly in the sense in which it is considered incorrect.
