572. B. Ph LAB 33. Archives for the 'Misused Words' Category

           33 -  'Misused Words' Category

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 Affect vs. Effect 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 Math or Maths? 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 and Infer Legs Akimbo Bring and Take Dammed If You Do… 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 “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

Passed vs Past

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

Wether, Weather, Whether

Complex and Complicated

For Want Of A Letter … Bated, Baited

Sit vs. Set: Sit Down and Let Me Set the Scene

For Want Of A Letter … Tic, Tick

Continuous or Continual?

A Man is Not a Widow

Averse, 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 and Fortunate

Deprecate, Depreciate

Prescribe and Proscribe

Different from, Different to, Different than

Between and 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

-

Categories

Book Reviews

Business Writing

Competitions

Expressions

Fiction Writing

Freelance Writing

General

Grammar

Grammar 101

Misused Words

Punctuation

Spelling

Style

Vocabulary

Word of the Day

Writing Basics