100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses

Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries

• Publisher: Reference
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780544791190
• eBook ISBN: 9780547350264
• Subtopic: Writing & Presentation Skills

Avoid vocabulary mistakes with this fun guide to tricky and troublesome words!
 
With concise and authoritative usage notes from the editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries, this guide explains common English-language errors—whether it's mixing up affect and effect; blatant and flagrant; or disinterested and uninterested, or stumbling over sound-alikes including discrete/ discreet or principal/ principle.
 
Other notes tackle such classic irritants as hopefully, impact, and aggravate, as well as problematic words like peruse and presently.
 
A great read for anyone who cares about getting it right, 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses can help keep writers and speakers on the up-and-up!
 

1

ad·verse

(ăd-vûrs′, ăd′vûrs′)

adjective

1. Acting or serving to oppose; antagonistic: “And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, / Fall like amazing thunder on the casque / Of thy adverse pernicious enemy” (William Shakespeare, King Richard II). 2. Contrary to one’s interests or welfare; harmful or unfavorable: “[M]ost companies are fearful of adverse publicity and never report internal security breaches . . . to law enforcement agencies, security analysts contend” (Peter H. Lewis, New York Times). 3. Moving in an opposite direction: As it ascended, the balloon was caught in an adverse current and drifted out to sea.

[Middle English, from Old French advers, from Latin adversus, past participle of advertere, to turn toward : ad–, ad– + vertere, to turn.]

RELATED WORD:

adverb—ad·verse′ly

SEE NOTE AT averse (#13).

“Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road—a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. . . . Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and a sharper howling—that of wolves—which affected both the horses and myself in the same way—for I was minded to jump from the caleche and run, whilst they reared again and plunged madly, so that the driver had to use all his great strength to keep them from bolting.”

—Bram Stoker,

Dracula

2

af·fect¹

(ǝ-fĕkt′)

transitive verb

Past participle and past tense: af·fect·ed

Present participle: af·fect·ing

Third person singular present tense: af·fects

1. To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar. 2. To act on the emotions of; touch or move: “Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and a sharper howling—that of wolves—which affected both the horses and myself in the same way” (Bram Stoker, Dracula). 3. To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever is one of many afflictions that can affect the heart.

noun (ăf′ĕkt′)

1. Feeling or emotion, especially as manifested by facial expression or body language: “The soldiers seen on television had been carefully chosen for blandness of affect” (Norman Mailer, Vanity Fair). 2. Obsolete A disposition, feeling, or tendency.

[Middle English affecten, from Latin afficere, affect–, to do to, act on : ad–, ad– + facere, to do.]

SEE NOTE AT effect (#28).

3

af·fect²

(ǝ-fĕkt′)

transitive verb

Past participle and past tense: af·fect·ed

Present participle: af·fect·ing

Third person singular present tense: af·fects

1. To put on a false show of; simulate: “He wheedled, bribed, ridiculed, threatened, and scolded; affected indifference, that he might surprise the truth from her” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women). 2. To have or show a liking for: affects dramatic clothes. 3. To tend to by nature; tend to assume: In my chemistry class, we study substances that affect crystalline form. 4. To imitate; copy: “Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language” (Ben Jonson, Timber).

[Middle English affecten, from Latin affectāre, to strive after, frequentative of afficere, affect–, to affect, influence; see AFFECT¹.]

RELATED WORD:

noun—af·fect′er

SEE NOTE AT effect (#28).

4

ag·gra·vate

(ăg′rǝ-vāt′)

transitive verb

Past participle and past tense: ag·gra·vat·ed

Present participle: ag·gra·vat·ing

Third person singular present tense: ag·gra·vates

1. To make worse or more troublesome: “Drinking alcohol (especially heavy drinking) or taking tranquilizers or sedating antihistamines shortly before bedtime can aggravate snoring by reducing muscle tone” (Jane E. Brody, New York Times). 2. To rouse to exasperation or anger; provoke.

[Latin aggravāre, aggravāt– : ad–, ad– + gravāre, to burden (from gravis, heavy).]

RELATED WORDS:

adverb—ag′gra·vat′ing·ly

adjective—ag′gra·va′tive

noun—ag′gra·va′tor

❧ Aggravate comes from the Latin verb aggravāre, which meant “to make heavier,” that is, “to add to the weight of.” It also had the extended senses “to burden” or “to oppress.” On the basis of this etymology, some claim that aggravate should not be used to mean “to irritate, annoy, rouse to anger.” But such senses for the word date back to the 17th century and are pervasive. In our 2005 survey, 83 percent of the Usage Panel accepted this usage in the sentence It’s the endless wait for luggage that aggravates me the most about air travel. This was a significant increase from the 68 percent who accepted the same sentence in 1988.

5

al·leged

(ǝ-lĕjd′, ǝ-lĕj′ĭd)

adjective

Represented as existing or as being as described but not so proved; supposed: “Cryptozoology is the study of unexplained and alleged sightings of strange creatures not documented by standard zoology” (Chet Raymo, Boston Globe).

RELATED WORD:

adverb—al·leg′ed·ly

❧ An alleged burglar is someone who has been accused of being a burglar but against whom no charges have been proved. An alleged incident is an event that is said to have taken place but has not yet been verified. In their zeal to protect the rights of the accused, newspapers and law enforcement officials sometimes misuse alleged. Someone arrested for murder may be only an alleged murderer, for example, but is a real, not an alleged, suspect in that his or her status as a suspect is not in doubt. Similarly, if the money from a safe is known to have been stolen and not merely mislaid, then we may safely speak of a theft without having to qualify our description with alleged.

6

all right

(ôl rīt)

adjective

1. In good condition or working order; satisfactory: The mechanic checked to...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Guide to the Entries
• Pronunciation Guide
• Pronunciation Key
• 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses