• chaste (what the pure are); chased (what the impure are)
• chic (stylish); sheik (leader)
• cite (to quote); site (location); sight (see, view, spectacle)
• confident (assured); confidant (friend)
• degree: A level attained; one earns a degree but receives a diploma. It's wrong, therefore, to call a degree his or hers, because degree ownership doesn't pass to holders.
• deprivation (loss); depravation (corruption)
• desperate (hopeless); disparate (distinctly dissimilar)
• destroy means eliminate or demolish. "Completely destroy" is therefore an unnecessary, superfluous, redundancy.
• dilemma (a choice between two equally bad options); Hobson’s choice (forced choice where no real alternative exists)
• disperse (scatter); disburse (pay)
• doubtful usually means skeptical or suspicious; avoid using it to mean unlikely or uncertain, as in doubtful starter. (See sportuguese.)
• dual (double); duel (fight)
• ecology (relationships between organisms and their environment); environment (all conditions surrounding an organism)
• either (one or the other); each (every one of a group). Either is commonly misused when the writer means each or both. WRONG: Sentries stood on either side of the gate.
• elicit (draw out); illicit (illegal)
• elude (to avoid); allude (indirectly refer to)
• epic (long narrative poem); epoch (start of an era)
• exceed (surpass); accede (agree)
• excess (surplus); access (entrance)
• extant (existing); extent (size)
• faint (dim, dizzy, weak); feint (pretense, false movement)
• fair (just, lovely, market); fare (charge, get along, menu)
• faze (disconcert); phase (stage) |