Vocabulary Stretchers: Commonly Confused Words
This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com focuses on vocabulary stretchers,
specifically on words that are commonly confused because they look or sound alike or are
somewhat related.
Sometimes the words are actually akin to each other.
Continuous -
continual and
enormity - enormousness are examples. Sometimes
they merely look or sound much alike.
Mean - demean and
affect -
effect are examples. Sometimes the things they designate are more or
less related, so that the ideas behind the words, rather than the words
themselves are responsible for the confusion.
Contagious - infectious
and
knowledge - wisdom are examples. Let us distinguish between the
two members of each of the pairs named.
A thing is
continuous if it suffers no interruption whatever,
continual if it is broken at regular intervals but as regularly
renewed. Thus "a continuous stretch of forest;" "the continual drip of
water from the eaves."
Enormity pertains to the moral and sometimes the social,
enormousness to the physical. Thus "the enormity of the crime,"
"the enormity of this social offense;" "the enormousness of prehistoric
animals."
Demean is often used reproachfully because of its supposed relation
to
mean. But it has nothing to do with
mean. The word with
which to connect it is
demeanor (conduct). Thus "We observed how he
demeaned himself" implies no adverse criticism of either the man or his
deportment. Both may be debased to be sure, but they may be exemplary.
To
affect means to have an influence upon, to
effect to bring to pass. Thus "He affects a fondness for classical
music," "The little orphan's story affected those who heard it;" "We
effected a compromise."
Affect is never properly used as a noun.
Effect as a noun means result, consequence, or practical operation.
Thus "The shot took instant effect;" "He put this idea into effect."
A disease is
contagious when the only way to catch it is through
direct contact with a person already having it, or through contact with
articles such a person has used. A disease is
infectious when it is
presumably caused, not by contact with a person, but through widespread
general conditions, as of climate or sanitation.
Our
knowledge is our acquaintance with a fact, or the sum total of
our information. Our
wisdom is our intellectual and spiritual
discernment, to which our knowledge is one of the contributors.
Knowledge comprises the materials;
wisdom the ability to use
them to practical advantage and to worthy or noble purpose.
Knowledge is mental possession;
wisdom is mental and moral
power.
Editor's note: This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is excerpted and adapted from
Project Gutenberg's The Century Vocabulary Builder, by Creever and Bachelor.
Return home to EnhanceMyVocabulary main page.
