Archives for the ‘Misused Words’ Category
- “Penpointing” and Other Near-Misses in the Media
- Double-Parking, Straddle, and To Seek Out
- Connotation of “Ram” vs “Cram”
- Wether, Weather, Whether
- Publicly vs. Publically
- “Painstaking” Does Not Mean “Painful” and a “Perk” is not a “Prerequisite”
- Math or Maths?
- Nutritional vs Nutritious: What’s the Difference?
- Passed vs Past
- Affect vs. Effect
- Avert vs. Avoid
- Emigrants vs. Immigrants vs. Migrants
- Captain vs. Master
- Faze vs. Phase
- Critique vs. Criticism
- Fit and Fitted
- 5 Words Often Mistakenly Used in Place of Others
- Simultaneous and Simultaneously
- Aught vs. Naught
- Infuse vs. Suffuse
- Swath vs. Swatch
- Top 10 Confused English Words [U-Z]
- Certainty vs. Certitude
- Classic vs. Classical
- What’s the Difference Between Socialism and Communism?
- Top Ten Confused Words [T]
- Educational vs. Educative
- Paraphrase vs. Summary
- Definite vs. Definitive
- Top 10 Confused Words in English [S]
- Rifle vs. Riffle
- Top Ten Words Confused Words [Q-R]
- Drama vs. Melodrama
- Whence and Thence
- Top 10 Words Confused in English [N-P]
- Trustworthy vs. Trustable
- Quest and Pursuit
- Effective, Efficient, Effectual, and Efficacious
- Population vs Populace
- Jail vs. Prison
- Minimize vs. Reduce
- Metre, Meter, and Mete
- Inspiring vs. Inspirational
- Precedent vs. Precedence
- Migrants vs. Refugees
- Condole vs. Console
- Express
- Does This Count As a Form of Dyslexia?
- Affect vs. Afflict
- Ulterior and Alterior
- Top 10 Words Confused in English [M]
- Addiction vs. Dependency
- Rite, Shine, and Recognize
- Let’s Look At “Lest”
- Intrinsic vs. Inherent
- Top 10 Confused Words in English [I-L]
- Acclimate vs. Acclimatise
- Tenants vs. Tenets
- Consummate Does Not Mean Commensurate
- Seduce, Seduction and Seductive
- Cliché vs. Idiom
- Top 10 Confused Words in English [G-H]
- Believes is a Verb
- Barbecue vs. Barbeque
- Sometime, Sometimes, and Some Time
- Is “Dystopic” a Word?
- Between vs. In Between
- Wound vs. Injury
- Pedaling vs. Peddling
- Each vs. Both
- Sense vs. Sensibility
- Top 10 Confused Words in English [E-F]
- Causing a Furor, Not a Fury
- Nauseated vs. Nauseous
- Dissembled vs. Disassembled
- To Garnish vs. To Garnishee
- Note or Notice
- Symbolic and Important
- Existent vs. Existing
- Top Ten Confused Words [C-D]
- CE vs. AD
- Rode and Road
- Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous
- A Centenarian is Probably Not a Centurion
- Top 10 Confused Words in English [A-B]
- Issues vs. Problems
- Minuscule vs. Miniscule
- Bestow Is a Transitive Verb
- Irreparable vs. Unrepairable
- Whenever vs. When Ever
- Hungover vs. Hung Over
- Confused Words #8: Flout and Flaunt
- Posthumous and Posthumously
- Imaginary vs. Imaginative
- Wreak and Pique Revisited
- Anywhere vs. Any Place
- Podium vs. Lectern
- Homicide, Murder and Manslaughter
- Moral vs. Ethical
- Silicon vs. Silicone
- Healthy vs Healthful
- Empathize vs. Sympathize
- Ripe vs. Rife
- Confused Words #7: Dual vs. Duel
- Confused Words #6: Imply vs. Infer
- Anyone vs. Everyone
- Methinks vs. I Think
- Gray vs. Grey
- Proportionate vs. Proportional
- Pendant vs. Pendent
- Addendum on Used To vs. Use To
- Mistrust vs. Distrust
- Click vs. Clip
- Fathom vs. Phantom
- Used To vs. Use To
- Confused Words #5: Conscious vs. Conscience
- Annunciation vs. Enunciation
- Labor vs. Belabor
- Die vs. Dye
- Peep vs. Peek
- Commodification vs. Commoditization
- Pleaded vs. Pled
- Confused Words #4: Averse, Horde and Sight
- Confused Words #3: Lose, Loose, Loss
- Pressured vs. Pressurized
- Depreciate vs. Deprecate
- Confused Words #2: Past and Passed
- Advance vs. Advanced
- Adaption vs. Adaptation
- Most vs. Almost
- Confused Words #1: There, Their, They’re
- License vs. Licence
- Incite, Incentive, Incent, Incentivize
- Insure vs. Ensure
- Confident vs. Confidant
- Amble vs. Ample
- Epidemic vs. Pandemic vs. Endemic
- Corroboratively vs. Collaboratively
- Amnesty is Already a Verb
- Overwhelm is a Verb, Isn’t It?
- Select vs. Selected
- Famous vs. Infamous
- Hurdle vs. Hurtle
- Revisiting Wether, Incidence and Different Than
- Surplus and Surplice
- Horde, Trooper, and Towards
- Cord vs. Chord
- Concerning as an Adjective
- Work out vs. Workout
- Oration vs. Peroration
- Least vs. Lest
- Proved vs. Proven
- Discomfort vs. Discomfiture
- Complacent vs. Complaisant
- Lever vs. Leverage
- Metal vs. Mettle
- Persecution vs. Prosecution, Persecute vs. Prosecute
- What Do We Deserve?
- Excoriating and Coruscating
- Particular vs. Specific
- Due and Owe
- The Internet vs. The Web
- Immigrants, Emigrants, and Migrants
- Cue vs. Queue
- Dying vs. Dyeing
- Proverb vs. Adage
- Caregiver vs. Caretaker
- Supervise vs. Monitor
- Disrespect and Dr. Fell
- New Meaning for Ingest
- Wile vs. While
- Ultimate and Penultimate
- Round vs. Around
- Raise vs. Rise
- Abstruse vs. Obtuse
- Alternate vs. Alternative
- Itch vs. Scratch
- Which “literally” Do You Mean?
- Vice Versa and Vis-à-Vis
- Kudo vs. Kudos
- The Connotation of Opportunistic
- Sit vs. Set
- 10 Pairs of Words and Their Useful Distinctions
- Happen vs. Occur
- Reciprocation vs. Reciprocity
- Purposely vs. Purposefully
- Lay vs. Lie: What’s So Hard?
- Alleviate vs. Relieve: When a Synonym Isn’t
- “Expedient” vs. “Expeditious”
- “Insidious” vs. “Invidious”
- “Congenial” vs. “Genial”
- Practical vs. Practicable
- “Avenge” vs. “Revenge”
- People vs. Persons
- Barbaric vs. Barbarous
- Hawk vs. Hock
- Collegial vs. Collegiate
- Congruent vs. Congruous
- Estimate vs. Guess
- Military vs. Militia
- Social vs. Societal
- Artist vs. Artisan
- Conscience vs. Conscious
- Clench vs. Clinch
- Earthly vs. Earthy
- Ingenious vs. Ingenuous #2
- Prodigal vs. Prodigy
- Extraneous vs. Superfluous
- Corporal vs. Corporeal
- Forgo vs. Forego
- Intrusive vs. Obtrusive
- Paramount vs. Tantamount
- Regime vs. Regimen
- Probable vs. Possible
- Principal vs. Principle
- Focus vs. Locus
- Older vs. Elder
- Denounce vs. Renounce
- Preventative vs. Preventive
- Bonds vs. Bounds
- Discrepancy vs. Disparity
- 5 Words Caught in Semantic Drift
- Prone vs. Supine
- 7 Similar but Distinct Word Pairs
- A Writer Lept to a Wrong Conclusion
- Palette vs. Pallet vs. Palate
- Farther vs. Further
- Flier vs. Flyer
- Ethics vs. Morals
- Adverse vs. Averse
- Dual vs. Duel
- Existent vs. Extant
- 5 Confused Word Pairs
- Analog vs. Digital
- Entropy vs. Atrophy
- Evoke vs. Invoke
- Precede vs. Proceed
- Customer vs. Client
- Archetype vs. Prototype
- Stationary vs. Stationery
- Whether to Use “Whether” or “If”
- What’s the Difference Between a Capital and a Capitol?
- Allusion vs. Illusion vs. Elusion
- 15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Verbs
- Marshal vs. Martial
- 15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Adjectives
- Vocation vs. Avocation
- 15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Nouns
- Do Sports Commentators Really Mean “Prolific”?
- Aisle and Isle
- Seasonal and Unseasonable
- 10 Pairs of Similar-Looking Near Antonyms
- Reeking and Wreaking
- 5 Mixed-Up Malapropisms
- Shifting Meaning of “Censor”
- 10 Words That Don’t Mean What You May Think They Do
- Humility and Humiliation
- In Regard to Your Letter…
- Who’s Misusing Whose?
- 50 Problem Words and Phrases
- I Just Got Wise to “Comprise”
- Literally the Worst Mistake You Could Ever Make
- Afflict vs. Inflict
- What Is Irony? (With Examples)
- Prima Donna
- “Affiliate,” “Franchise,” and al-Qaeda
- A Knight Errant and an Arrant Knave
- Three Peeves in One Newspaper Article
- Trooper or Trouper?
- Using “zeitgeist” Coherently
- Myth and Misconception
- Warbling and Garbling
- Flounder and Founder
- “Trifecta” Not Always Appropriate
- The Difference Between “Discreet” and “Discrete”
- Surprising or Not Surprising
- “Breach” and “Break”
- Stanch and Staunch
- Bust, Burst, and Arrest
- Understanding the Gist of the Matter
- Ferment and Foment
- Fleshing Out and Flushing Out
- Repudiate, Refute, and Reject
- Ingenious vs. Ingenuous
- “Sleazy” and “slazy”
- Hyper and Hypo
- Vertical and Vertiginous
- Using the Adjective “Lackadaisical”
- Four “Censor” Words to Keep Straight
- “Bored with,” or “bored of”?
- “Cement” or “Concrete”?
- “Latter,” not “Ladder”
- Abstruse and Obtuse
- “Adequate” is Adequate
- To Open a Pandora’s Box
- Fluent in Speech and Affluent in Wealth
- Clamoring and Clambering
- Hordes of People Shouldn’t Hoard
- PIN Number
- Correct Use of the Adjective “Reincarnate”
- When did “Beware” Become a Noun?
- I Miss Not Seeing You
- Whelps are Puppies
- “Replacement for” and “replacement of”
- Dawned vs. Donned
- What the heck are “learnings”?
- Wrapping Things Up and “Rapping Things Up”
- The Noun is “Plea,” the Verb is “Plead”
- Bisect and Dissect
- The Adjective is “Immune”
- Don’t Waste “Decimate”
- “Hard Sales” and “Hard Sells”
- Reverse and Invert
- Is “fulsome” a complimentary word?
- What’s Going On with “Underestimate”?
- Orchestrate and Crescendo
- An Ultimatum IS “Final”
- “Economic” or “Economical”?
- What is an “Entree”?
- Some Advice about “Advise”
- Character and Caricature
- “Crapulence” Doesn’t Mean That
- Individual or Person?
- Razed to the Ground
- Octaves and Decibels
- Threw and Through
- What Do You Call the Enemy?
- Musings on the Uses of “Abash”
- How Do You Fare?
- “Epiphany” or Mere “Realization”?
- Epicenter vs. Center
- Jill Came Tumbling After
- Reign or Regime?
- Scotch
- Cutting the Mustard
- “Verbing” Nouns
- Imply vs. Infer
- Legs Akimbo
- Bring and Take
- Damned vs. Dammed
- Allude and Elude
- On the Use of “Nemesis”
- The Demise of De Luxe
- Anyway, Any Way, or Anyways?
- The Curious Case of “Whet”
- Ambiguity or Futility?
- Soldiers or Troops?
- Might, May, and Can
- Forget about the “Dark Ages”
- Avert eyes, Divert attention
- Empathic or Empathetic?
- “Female” or “Woman”?
- Stunned, Astounded and Astonished
- Into the Breach!
- Can’t we just “raise” the question?
- Let’s Just Prosecute to the FULL extent of the Law.
- Confusing “Passed” with “Past”
- Trouble with “Vigorously” and “Vicariously”
- “Intact” is One Word
- When is a “Mistake” Not a Mistake?
- Aesthetic or Aesthetical?
- Civil Liberties and Civic Duties
- 4 Exasperating Malapropisms
- “Before” and “Ago”
- The Chief Justice’s Prepositional Slip
- Making Sense of “Since”
- The Difference Between “Un-” and “Dis-“
- “A Historic” or “An Historic” Event?
- Compliment vs Complement
- Loan, Lend, Loaned, Lent
- A While vs Awhile
- Inquire vs Enquire
- Let’s Not Eviscerate “Eviscerate”
- Especially vs. Specially
- Funny Images Conjured up by Web Comments
- Let’s Keep Some of the Old Verb Forms
- Used Transitively, “Avail” Is a Reflexive Verb
- Systematic and Systemic
- “Wreck,” “Wreak,” and Other [rek] Words
- Tibetan Situation Getting Sticky
- Robin Hood was Clad in Green
- Any vs. Either
- Complex and Complicated
- Bated vs. Baited
- Sit vs. Set: Sit Down and Let Me Set the Scene
- For Want Of A Letter … Tic, Tick
- Continuous vs. Continual
- A Man is Not a Widow (Widow vs. Widower)
- Averse vs. Adverse
- Accent And Dialect
- Farther, Further: What’s the Difference?
- Hopefully Speaking
- “Famous” Doesn’t Apply to Murderers or Gangsters
- Will You Assent to the Ascent?
- It’s Not “The Ox-Bow Incidence”
- Persecute, Prosecute
- Malapropisms
- Crucial, Vital, Essential
- Elude vs. Allude vs. Illude
- Are You Sure You Mean “Moot”?
- Fortuitous vs. Fortunate
- Deprecate vs. Depreciate
- Prescribe vs. Proscribe
- Different from, Different to, Different than
- Between vs. Among
- “Disinterested” Not the Same as “Uninterested”
- Gross Writing Errors Found on the Web
- Percentage and Percentile
- A “Diploma” is not a “Degree”
- Glimpse and Glance: Same or Different?
- People versus Persons
- Titled versus Entitled
- CAUTION: Merging Words
- “Forte” or “Fortë,” “Cache” or “Cachet”?
- Quiet or Quite?
- Is that “-ness” Really Necessary?
- “Fictional” and “Fictitious”
- Less is More When it Comes to “Unique”
- Folks versus People
- Then or Than?
- Less/Fewer; Number/Amount: Still Salvageable
- Where and Whence
- Loose or Lose?
- Accept the Effect
- Whatever Happened to “Arrested”?
- Are We All Together on This?
- The Gentleman Fled on Foot
- Not Nice At All
- Principle, Principal
- The Everyday Blues
- I Hate “Kids”
- The Right Climate
- Accepting Complements
- The Difference Between e.g. and i.e.?
- There, Their, They’re