Is the Thumb a Finger?
9. Convenient Speech
It is common for us to refer to thumbs as fingers. To say that somebody has five fingers on each hand is a lot easier than explaining that they have four fingers and one thumb on each hand. We automatically know what is meant and it doesn’t mean people will be imagining a hand with five fingers and no thumb.
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If somebody does try to call you out on it, they are probably being pedantic, and you can quite easily just ignore them. Of course, if you are explaining literally having five fingers (no thumbs) on each hand then you should probably clarify so that people know just what you mean.
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