Imagine someone telling you an extremely unlikely story, and you (not the reliable type) express skepticism – can you not believe and story amazing, is there any other way? You’ll be happy to know that in this case there’s a fairly simple answer, at least according to current usage; you are not believe (“skeptic”) and …
pretend means “pretend or fake something (such as illness).” feints also related to deception, but usually refers to physical movements intended to distract an opponent, such as a mock punch. Final, faint as an adjective can mean “virtually imperceptible” and as a verb referring to the loss of consciousness. IN pretend, feintsAnd faintEnglish has three …
store can be a noun or a verb, referring to the provision of something hidden or the act of collecting and storing said supply. ONE hoarder are often the ones who obsessively and unnecessarily keep things they don’t need. herdon the other hand, refers to a large group of loosely organized people. Often crowd carries …
There are several ways to pluralize words from Latin. Some words end in -we be plural with one -I (alike student ARRIVE Alumni). Some words do not change form in Latin, so their plurals have been Anglicized with an addition -es (status ARRIVE status). Finally, many scientific words come from New Latin, which has many …
Some words form semi-rhymes with orange (use the second half of the word), including coupling, cowerAnd impact. However, sporethe plant structure that produces spores, is a present-day word that forms an almost perfect rhyme with orange. Orange Are you glad we don’t rhyme ‘banana’? from orange famous for having no rhyme. The rhyme sound of …
Stay tuned for a simple memo. Whenever one comes across two long words with only one letter distinct, they can be confused with each other. It doesn’t matter if the meaning is the same or not; the spelling similarity is enough to cause confusion. An example of this is found with preposition And Draft. ‘Preposition’ …
Instructions for use often warn against confusion torture And winding. These words have quite different meanings, but one of them is often used in place of the other. This type of mixture is due to the fact that torture And winding etymologically related, and also simply because the two words look similar. Origins of ‘crooked’ …
countersink is generally a noun that refers to a tool used to drill holes or move loose material. Astronomer can be a noun or a verb, referring to someone who foretells events based on omens or the act of doing so. If something is “augurs well” or “augurs ill”, it means that something good or …
Stand in front means “to come, be, or go before.” It can also mean passing rank or dignity. Closely related words continue means “resume after pausing” or “start and resume an action.” Often stand in front related to time, while continue related to action. Without further trouble, we will proceed with the article. Do stand …
refer means to refer to something indirectly. It is usually followed by ARRIVElike when one thing “implies” another. hidehas the same origin as refer, which means “to evade” or “escape from perception or understanding.” To remember, keep in mind that evade start with E, like escape And hide. If your allusion is too confusing, it …
going to happen And genially differ only in pronunciation by one vowel, which is why they are sometimes confused. genially often used to describe someone or something that stands out noticeably above others, while going to happen used to describe something that is about to happen very soon. intrinsicanother adjective pronounced exactly like going to …
quote, locationAnd sight It’s easy to confuse them because they sound exactly the same. Sight is the most common; it usually involves the act or act of seeing, as in “a beautiful sight.” Location is about location; “construction site” is a place where something is being built and if a business is “located in a …
in fact access And excess similarity as words is due to the similarity of surnames they brought to English from Latin, their common root language. They were also introduced into English at the same time, in the 14th century, a period when French was spoken by the ruling classes in England were contributing new words …
Right functions as an adjective, adverb, noun, and verb. Some common uses of adjectives are “morally or socially correct or acceptable”, as in “the right thing to do” and “correct or right”, as in “answer correct”. Adverb usage includes direction “toward the right” as in “turn right” and “correctly” as in “you guessed correctly”. Among …
homophones brake And break sound identical and occupy the same part of speech, but have very different definitions. Brake can act as a noun (“device used to stop the movement of something”) and can also be used as a verb (“to apply the brakes on a vehicle”). Breakon the other hand, is a more complex …
grape, current And diehard same pronunciation, if not used. grape is a raisin-like fruit used in cakes and jams, while current is both a noun (usually referring to electricity, air, and water) and an adjective (“happening in the present moment”). little used one diehard means “newspaper.” use notes always au courant. The Meaning and Usage …
Favourite And favourite are two variations of the same word with the same definition. Favourite no “u” is the spelling used in the United States, while favourite used in the rest of the English-speaking world. The “u” in favourite traces of French influence on English following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Both variations …
Both born And suffer are forms of bear. Born often used with the meaning bear means “to give birth.” Suffer used to refer to carrying something (physically or figuratively), as a form of conjunction with words like airand, sometimes, in the sense of “born”. It’s almost too cute to bear. When sorting the difference between …
If And Whether are often interchangeable, but have distinct uses. For clarity, it’s best to use Whether relating to a choice or alternatives (“we will go whether it rains or not”) and if when setting a condition (“we’ll go if it doesn’t rain”). In English grammar, a conjunction is a word that connects sentences, clauses, …
Many people love Shakespeare, that’s what we stand for. Many people also love the accuracy of quoting literary sources, which we also support. Given that we support these two, some may wonder why we have a definition for an idiom that is a Bard misquote, gilded lilies. Misidentification in a Shakespeare play? Now we have …
Wait line up much more common than waiting online, which is a phrase that is largely local to the New York City area. Both convey the same meaning. Small and meaningless variations in the word are often taken as examples of a person’s education level, geographic location, or in some cases, a person’s overall level …
Are you planning to spend a photo session capturing the essence of your snack, baby or brunch? We have no opinion on the subject of your photographic eye. Our concern is: would you call it ‘photography’ or ‘photography’? Camera likes to change language While take a photo And photoshoot day are all accepted designs of …
Both cannot And cannot totally fine, but cannot is much more common and therefore recommended, especially in any kind of formal writing. cannot has a similar meaning, but like the shortened forms in general, it is somewhat formal. In some cases, the Are not next Maybe fact is part of another phrase, such as “not …
Today, species refers to a group that shares some external physical characteristics and some cultural and historical similarities. nation refers to the signs obtained by the group with which a person shares cultural, traditional, and family ties. When filling out an application or legal form, you may be asked what race you are, other than …
English loves adjectives to the point of bursting with them. Like weeds growing in the cracks of pavement, we find adjectives that overlap in meaning or split into better and better distinctions. It is difficult to imagine such a small but recognizable difference in meaning as between, for example, rust And rust—words that certainly overlap …
Bigger means that one thing is larger in size than another, and The biggest mentions the largest in its category, but what if the category includes only two? Some say that “which is greater of the two” is better, but that choice depends on logic rather than grammar. There’s nothing wrong with calling the larger …
can not be explained And can not be explained both mean “inexplicable,” but inexplicable also often implies that something cannot be explained or explained. One of the fascinating features of adjectives in English is that we have a lot of adjectives that are synonyms but are used differently. It’s hard to describe the difference in …
Both ‘wreak havoc’ and ‘wreck havoc’ are used, but ‘wreak havoc’ is more common and more widely accepted. Will a devastated or shipwreck It? So a person, to be precise, cry devastated or play It? And before we dive into all that, what exactly is it devastation? We’re glad you asked these common daily questions. …
Food is restorative, for sure. But restore is not the first word we associate with eating—we tend to use words with more specific meanings, such as nutritious or delicious. But even though restore is not the first word that comes to mind when discussing food, restaurant is, and it derives from the same word the …
1: naughty or clever 2: extremely Harrison Ford, for the first time, was better than expected. And that opening number—”Anything Goes” sung in Chinese in a Shanghai bar called Obi-wan—was a hit. —Stephen Schaefer, WEJuly 2, 1984 This adverb comes from the adjective roof. ; and “marked with a deliberate and often forced sarcasm, irony, …
The point of view of a story determines who is telling it and the narrator’s relationship to the characters in the story. In the first person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story told from their point of view. From a third-person point of view, the narrator is not part of …
IE means “mean,” as in “She is a Hoosier, that is, she is from Indiana.” For example means “for example”, as in “She originates from local teams, e.g. Pacers and Colts.” How to use ‘ie’ IE stands for Latin id est, or ‘that is,’ and is used to introduce a word or phrase that repeats …
Grey And grey are all common spellings of the color between black and white. Grey more often in American English, while grey more common in British English. Different usage of both grey And grey extends to specialized terms such as animals (gray whale/gray whale) and scientific terms (gray matter/gray matter). greyhound is an exception, having …
When used to modify another word, Daily written as a single word (“an Daily frequency of occurrence,” “Daily clothes,” “Daily life”). When you want to point out that something happens every day, Daily written in two words (“to work Daily“). Check here everyday until you figure them out. We all make decisions about which words …
Unknown articles One And ONE pop up everywhere, introducing nouns of people, creatures, or things that are not identified or specified. We see and hear them in phrases like “desserts” and “essentials”. Native English speakers often don’t need to think at all: small words just slip off the tongue like an almost invisible thread linking …
Principal as an adjective meaning “most important.” As a noun, it refers to someone in a leadership position, or chief executive officer of a school. Rule, on the other hand, can only be a noun, referring to a “fundamental truth,” a “rule or law,” or a “fundamental quality that drives one’s behavior” (as in “following …
homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meaning or spelling. homonym spelled the same, but different in meaning or pronunciation. homophones can be either or even both. To help with memorization, think about the etymology: homophones sound the same (Greek phonos), homosexualgraph have the same spelling (Greek lead) and gayyounger sister comes …
Most words go through life without much excitement, doing their job and never attracting much attention. Others, such as dilapidatedstir up a bit of noise (at one point, some people thought that referring to a wooden house was dilapidated incorrect, since the word comes from the Latin word for rock, lapis lazuli). Some words, such …
Three plurals for octopus comes from the different ways that the English language uses plurals. octopus is the oldest plural of octopuscomes from the belief that words of Latin origin should have a Latin ending. octopus is the next plural, giving the word an English ending to accommodate its use as an English word. Final, …
