Sometimes as authors we mishear a phrase or during our childhood our parents misuse a phrase, and then this incorrect version becomes firmly fixed in place as we write. Such is the case with deep-seated vs. deep-seeded.

Deep-seeded is the phrase you’ve probably misheard or heard being misused.

Deep-seated is the phrase you most likely want to use. It means that something is ingrained in another, as in deep-seated beliefs.

Deep-seeded works if referring to sports rankings, as in Central Southwest Los Angeles College was deep-seeded at No. 526 among the nation’s top basketball teams.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.