Confused Words Exercise (692)

In each sentence, choose the correct word from the pair of similar terms. (If both words possibly can be correct, choose the more plausible one.)

  • She walked around the side of the house to ________ the damage.

  • At the _______ of the ambassador, who envied his influence with the prince, he was recalled.

  • The plan is ________ with danger and risk.

  • They took turns relating the story, careful to include all the ________ details.

  • She was concerned about the ______ in their relationship.

Answers and Explanations

1. She walked around the side of the house to appraise the damage.

appraise: evaluate, or set a value on. "A jeweler must appraise the ring before it can be insured."
apprise: inform, or make aware: "He has been apprised of the issues the report has identified.

2. At the request of the ambassador, who envied his influence with the prince, he was recalled.

behest: command, or urgent prompting. "At the queen’s behest, the prisoner will be pardoned for his crime."
request: an act of formally or politely asking for something. "Without looking at Jane, he addressed his request to her."

3. The plan is fraught with danger and risk.

fraught: charged, emotional. "Their marriage had long been fraught with issues."
wrought: created, decorated, or formed: "I sought to remind them of the good he’d wrought despite his faults."

4. They took turns relating the story, careful to include all the pertinent details.

pertinent: related to a discussion or thought. "Reasoning that her revelation was not pertinent to the situation, he decided not to share it with them."
salient: very important or noticeable. "She was still able to give the police a few salient facts about her attacker."

5. She was concerned about the rift in their relationship.

riff: a brief pattern of repeated musical notes, or a short set of comments, or a variation. "I told him that it wasn’t cool to steal a riff from somebody else’s song."
rift: a deep crack in the ground, or a break in a relationship caused by conflict or disagreement. "More likely, it was an attempt to cause a rift between them."

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