Confused words

 Three questions

Here are some similar looking and sounding words which may cause confusion. Do you know the difference between these three pairs of words?

  • Prevaricate and Procrastinate?

  • Affect and Effect?

  • Farther and Further?

Prevaricate = act in an evasive way (from Latin, go astray or walk crookedly)

Procrastinate = delay or put off (from Latin pro – forward + cras – tomorrow)

If people prevaricate they often procrastinate.

 

Affect = make a difference / have an effect on (verb only)

Effect = result (noun); bring about a result (verb)

 

Further = additional (as in furthermore)

Farther involves distance.

Note: Increasingly further is used in both senses but traditionalist may protest.

 

More Confused and misused words and clichés

 

Advance = progress, move forward. 

Advancement = promotion

 

Aggravate= make worse.  NOT the same as …

Annoy = irritate.

 

Alibi = is NOT a synonym for Excuse.

 

Alternative =can only be used when there are 2 choices. 

Options is the word for more choices

 

Chronic = means lasting a long time. It does not mean acute or severe.

 

Collateral = additional, secondary, parallel, together with [often using as jargon / cliché for marketing materials]. 

 

Compare to = suggest a similarity.

Compare with = assess in relation. (Compared with her contemporaries she has a distinctive style of writing).

 

Continuous = without a break (The performance was continuous with no interval)

Continual = happening throughout (There was continual coughing throughout the concert)

 

Different = not the same"That different can only be followed by from and not to is a superstition" Fowler's Modern English Usage

Various = a variety of

 

Due to = owing to (not because of)

 

Ensure = to make safe or certain.

Insure= to arrange for compensation in the event of loss or damage

Assure = make something happen/ give people confidence

 

Forego = go before

Forgo = do without

 

Hung = for meat and paintings

Hanged = for people

 

Immanent = pervading or inherent

Imminent = about to happen

 

Infer = to conclude (NOT the same as imply, which indicates the truth of something). There is a subtle difference.

 

Invaluable = precious and cannot be valued. Opposite of valueless = worthless

 

Licence (noun), License (verb)

Similarly practice and practice.

American spelling uses -ce for both noun and verb

 

Masterful = overbearing

Masterly = skilful

 

Oblivious = ignorant (not forgetful)

 

Precipitous = steep (as in a precipice)

Precipitate = hurried, rash

 

Principal = main or chief (adjective or noun)

Principle = fundamental truth

 

Quite = an overused qualifier or intensifier so the word can confuse. 

 

Responsibility= can only refer to people and not things.

 

Robust = firm strong in a physical sense. Best avoided because it has become a cliché.

 

Shambles = a slaughterhouse, so there needs to be a sense of ‘bloody destruction’ as in a plane crash. It is not the same as disorder or a riot.

 

Stationary = standing still

Stationery = writing materials

 

Sympathy = feel with (literally); feelings corresponding to 

Empathy = ability to understand and share feelings.

 

Transpire = leak out (narrower than happen)

 

Unique = one of a kind; unmatched (so ‘absolutely unique’ and ‘quite unique’ are wrong).

 

Waive = abandoned

 

While = during the time that (something is happening simultaneously). 

Clue: Can you replace ‘while’ with ‘during the time that’?

 

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