One of the most frequently used notions in linguistics, logical analysis of language, and in logic itself is the notion of scope. The scopes of quantifiers and of other logically active expressions are one of the most important determinants of the logical form of the sentences of both formal and natural languages. Yet in the way this notion is currently employed, it embodies a confusion which makes its use viciously misleading. The first aim of this paper is to expose the flaw in question. In the future no linguist, logician or philosopher should use the notion of scope without having first cleared up its meaning. In linguistics, the concept will even turn out to be worthless as a primitive notion.