Sure they all have the word ground in them, but the way the word is used makes sense for the others. So I'd like to suggest that it can be confusing for even the people who aren't too lazy to look up the definitions. Once they look up the definitions, they all make sense based on the name.. except for one.NEC calls those same three conductors "ungrounded conductor, grounded conductor and equipment grounding conductor". To someone not familiar or too lazy to look at the definitions this can be confusing - all three of them have "ground" within them.
Ungrounded Conductor... the conductor isn't grounded...✔
Grounded Conductor... the conductor is grounded...✔
Equipment Grounding Conductor... hmmm...
And for the person that looks up the definitions you also have these NEC definitions which you then try to line up with EGC name:
Ground. The earth.
Grounded (Grounding). Connected (connecting) to ground or to a conductive body that extends the ground connection.
Yes, they have definitely gotten better with it over the years. I don't think it was too long ago though that there was something similar to a requirement to "ground" receptacles or switches or other similar devices IIRC. Something like that. Anyone recall? And I believe there are still a few other remnants in there that require us to "ground" something when I'm pretty sure they don't mean connect it to the earth as the Dirt Worshipers (credit to Dave) would like to think.But in all those cases NEC is still consistent with using those words within it's own definitions, which is the first key to understanding all of this