Passing the mouse-arrow over a highlighted word will cause a brief definition of that word to appear in the status-line of your browser (at the bottom of the browser window). Try to determine the definition from the context first. Most definitions are based on those found in the Merriam Webster's WWWebster Dictionary (based on Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition and used with permission of Merriam Webster, Inc.) but are by no means complete. Clicking on a hyperlinked word will return you to the top of the list.
Some sentences are accompanied by recordings. Click on the speaker icon to hear the recording. This works best, of course, with a fast connection and if your browser and computer are configured to play .au files. If you're in a lab environment, please wear headphones so you won't annoy others.
What is
its color?
It's green.
It's been a long, long time.
These come first, out of alphabetical order, because they're the champs, surely the most often confused words in English! Remember, it's means it is or it has! Use its to show possession.
The abhorrent individual was spurned by his fellow citizens because of his aberrant behavior.
The teacher's
aide more than once came to the aid of her supervisor. [AIDS, the acronym for Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, is spelled in all caps.]
When they got the
assent of the weather bureau, they allowed the enormous balloon to begin its
ascent. [N.B. The word accent — what we hear in one's speech — has no "s."]
The amount of money you make in a year depends on the number of deals you close.
I am annoyed that my bad back seems to be aggravated by tension. [To aggravate means to make something worse which is already bad. I cannot be aggravated, but my injury can be.]
Besides my unphotogenic aunt and uncle, there were fourteen other people standing beside the train station.
He has divided the money between Carlos and his daughter. He has divided the rest of his property among his three brothers. [This distinction is not as important as some people think. See the usage of both words in your dictionary.]
These sisters-in-law, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and the late Florence Griffith Joyner, were once the World's Greatest Athlete and the World's Fastest Woman.
The activity of troops on the other side of the border belied the ambassador's sweet-sounding entreaties for peace. (Should not be confused with "betray" or "evince." To "belie" something is not to reveal it as true but to show the apparent truth of something as being false.)
Some people confuse Calvary, the place where Jesus was crucified, with the word cavalry, which describes an army component, usually on horseback (or nowadays in helicopters).
You may begin this exercise whenever you can get around to it. [In negative constructions, the word can can be used to express permission: You cannot
go to the movies today.]
You cannot blame him for screaming, "Damn it, Bob! You can not do that anymore!"
I chose the red balloon. Now you choose a balloon of another color.
The climactic moment of a lightning storm, nature's most dramatic climatic event, is a deafening roll of thunder.
His clothes were made of cloths of many different colors.
We used a coarse sandpaper, of course.
Mario and Lucien, The Corsican Brothers, from the Dumas classic. Actually, that's Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who played both roles in the 1941 movie version.
Connecticut comprises eight counties. The system is constituted of twelve separate campuses. [If you say "comprised of," you've probably used the word incorrectly.]
primarily when documenting resources and then only parenthetically) or not at all. [E.g. means for example, and it is usually better to use the English phrase, for example. I.e. means that is. Because both abbreviations are almost invariably introductory modifiers, they are often followed by a comma, but some authorities say not to use the comma. Do not underline or italicize either of them.]
When we say a man is literally an idiot, we don't necessarily mean he has a low I.Q.; we might be exaggerating, saying he is "virtually" an idiot. If we speak figuratively, calling him a pumpkin-head, we're using the language of analogy.
The football players seemed to flout the referees and continued to brazenly flaunt their silly, arrogant routine every time they scored.
The horse-owners began to flounder about in the stands when they saw their horse founder right at the starting gate. [A flounder is a fish. A founder (noun) is what we call someone who establishes an institution (a church or community, for example). That person, we could say, has founded something (not to be confused with the past tense of to find: "She found the flashlight.")]
The prosecutor began to gibe the witness when the details of his story did not jibe with his previous testimony. [N.B. "Jive" (jargon of jazz musicians, street talk) is not a synonym for "jibe."]
The guerilla soldiers eventually got used to living among the gorillas in the jungle.
A homonym is one of two or more words spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning (as the noun quail and the verb quail). A homophone is one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling (as the words to, too, and two). And, incidentally, a homograph is one of two or more words spelled alike but different in meaning or derivation or pronunciation (as
the bow of a ship, a bow and arrow). The important distinction, then, is that words like the verb obJECT and the noun OBject are homographs but not homonyms — because they're not pronounced alike.
In less than an hour, the voters in our town are going to vote for us.
In preparing for his most spectacular illusion, the magician made an allusion to the magic of Houdini.
They have immigrated to this city from all over eastern Europe; later on, they may decide to emigrate elsewhere.
Notorious Confusables: Part Two
