Confusing Word List 4

macrocosm, microcosm; madam, madame; magnet, magnate; maid, made; mail, male; main, mane, Maine; maize, maze; majority, plurality, minority; mall, maul; manner, manor; mantel, mantle; manual, Manuel; mare, mayor; marital, martial, marshal; mark, marque; marquee, marquis; marten, martin; mask, masque; massage, message; massed, mast; massive, missive; masterful, masterly; material, materiel or matériel; maybe, may be; mean, mien; meat, meet, mete; medal, meddle; mediate, meditate, medicate; medium, media, median; meeting, meting; melody, medley, malady; merry, marry, Mary;

metal, mettle; meteor, meteorite; mewl, mule; mews, muse, Muse; milestone, millstone; militate, mitigate; millenary, millinery; mince, mints; miner, minor; minute, minuet; misocapnist, capnophobia; missal, missile; mist, missed; mite, might; moan, mown; moat, mote, molt; mode, mowed; mogul, mongrel; momentous, momentary; monologue, dialogue; monopoly, polypoly; mood, mooed; moose, mousse, mouse; moot, mute; moral, morale; morality, mortality; morbid, sordid; more, mower; morn, mourn; morning, mourning; motif, motive; motto, mottle; mucous, mucus; mulched, mulcted; muscle, mussel; musical, musicale; mustard, mustered

N nauseated, nauseous; naval, navel; nay, nee or née, neigh; need, knead, kneed; negligent, negligible; never, ever; new, gnu, knew, nu; news, gnus; nice, gneiss; night, knight; nom de plume, pseudonym, pen name; none, nun; nose, knows, noes, nos; nugget, nougat

O oar, o’er, or, ore; oath, minced oath; obscene, lewd; observance, observation; obsolete, obsolescent, archaic, archaism; obstacle, impediment; oculist, optician, ophthalmologist, optometrist; ode, owed; official, officious; one, won; opaque, transparent; optimist, pessimist; oracle, auricle; oral, verbal, aural; ordinance, ordnance; orient, Orient, orientate; osculate, oscillate, vacillate; our, hour; overdo, overdue; O, oh, owe,; oversight, omission

paced, paste; packed, pact; packs, pax; paid, payed; pail, pale; pain, pane; pair, pairs, pare, pear; pairing, paring; palate, palette, pallet; pall, pawl; par, parr; pariah, piranha; parlay, parley; partition, petition; passe, posse; passed, past; pastor, pasture; pathos, bathos; patients, patience; pause, paws; pawing, pawning; peace, piece; peaceful, peaceable; peak, peek, pique, piqué; peaked, peaked; peal, peel; pealing, peeling; pean or paean, peon; pearl, purl; pedal, peddle, petal; peer, pier; pelisse, police; pen, pin; penance, pennants; pencil, pensile; pendant, pedent, pennant; penitence, penitents; per, purr; percent, percentage; perfect, prefect; perimeter, parameter; perpetrate, perpetuate; perpetual, perpetuity; perquisite, requisite, prerequisite; persecute, prosecute; personal, personnel; perspective, prospective, prospectus; perspicuous, perspicacious; perspiration, aspiration, inspiration; peruse, pursue; petrify, putrify, purify; petty, paltry, trivial; pew, pu; phenomenon, phenomena, phenomenal; physic, physique, psychic; pi, pie; pidgin, pigeon; pier, peer;

pistil, pistol; pitiful, piteous, pitiable; pizza, piazza; place, plaice; plain, plane; plaintiff, defendant; plait, plate, pleat,; plausible, feasible; pleas, please; plight, flight, flite or flyte; plum, plumb; pejorative, meliorative; pejoration, melioration; pole, poll; polish, Polish; polite, courteous; pomace, pumice; pommel, pummel; populace, populous, population; popular, poplar; pore, pour, poor; poring, pouring; portion, potion; practical, practicable, pragmatic; practice, practise; praise, prays, preys; pray, prey; precede, proceed; precedence, precedents; precedent, president; precipitate, precipitous, precipice; predicate, predicate, predict; prelude, preclude; premier, première or premiere; prescribe, proscribe; presence, presents; presumption, presumptive, presumptuous; pretend, portend, portent; prevent, hinder; preventive, preventative; pride, pried; pries, prize; principal, principle; prier, prior; prints, prince; profit, prophet; prophecy, prophesy; proletarian, plebian; proportion, apportion; propose, purpose; prosperity, posterity; protege, prodigy; prodigal, progeny; pros, prose; pendant, pedent; prosthesis, prostration; prosthetic, prostration; prostrate, prostate; protein, protean; prude, prudent; pundit, pundent, pedant, prodigy; purl, pearl; puttee, putty; puzzle, perplex, bewilder

quail, quail; quarts, quartz; query, question, quest, inqiry; quiet, quite, quit R rabbet, rabbit; rabble, rubble, rubbish; race, race; rack, wrack; racket, racquet; rail, rail, rail; ravage, ravish; raise, rear, rise, raze, rays; raise, rear; raised, razed; rake, rake; rap, wrap; rapt, rapped, wrapped; rappel, repel; rapper, wrapper; rare, scarce; rational, rationale; readable, legible; recent, resent, resent; read, reed; read, red; real, reel; realize, know; ream, reem; rebound, redound; recede, reseed; recitation, resuscitation; recurring, frequent; redundant, abundant; reek, wreak; refuge, refugee; refuse, refuse; regal, regale; regime, regimen, regiment; register, registrar; reign, rein, rain; reigns, reins, rains; reputed, reported; required, prescribed; requirement, requisition;

reseat, receipt, recipe; reserve, reserve; residence, residents; resign, re-sign; resort, resort; respectable, respectful, respective; respectfully, respectively, respectably; rest, wrest; restful, restive; restive, restless, restful; resume, continue; résumé, synopsis, summary; retch, wretch; reticent, taciturn; reverence, reference; review, revue; revile, revel; revelry, reveille; rheum, room; Rhodes, roads; rhumb, rum; rhyme, rime; rich, wealthy, affluent; rigger, rigor; right, rite, write, wright; ring, wring; ringer, wringer; risky, risque or risqué; road, rode, rowed; roam, Rome; roar, rower; robber, thief, burglar; roc, rock; roe, row, row; roil [rile], royal; roll, role; rood, rude, rued; roomer, rumor; root, route, en route, rout; rose, rosé, rows, roes, rouse; roster, rostrum; rot, wrought; rote, wrote; ruble, rubble; ruff, rough; rung, wrung; rye, wry

sac, sack, sacque; sacks, sax; sacred, sacrosanct; sacrilege, sacrilegious; sail, sale; salary, celery; salon, saloon; salubrious, lugubrious; sanatorium, sanitarium; sane, seine, Seine; sanguine, sanguinary, sanguineous; satin, sateen; savant, idiot savant, idiot; saver, savor; scald, scold; scalp, scalpel; scan, scandal; scream, screech, shriek, squeal; scrip, script; scuff, scruff; scull, skull; sculptor, sculpture; seam, seem; seamen, semen; seamed, seemed; sear, seer, seer, sere; seas, sees, seize, siege, cease; seasonable, seasonal; secret, secrete; sects, sex; seen, scene; see, sea; sense, scents, cents; sell, cell; senses, census; sensitive, sensuous, sensual; septic, skeptic, styptic; serf, surf; seraph, serif; session, cession; setaceous, cetaceous; sever, severe; sewage, sewerage; sewer, sewer, sower, suer; sexton, sextant; shall, will; shear, sheer; sheath, sheathe; shelf, shelve; shoe, shoo; shone, shown; shoot, chute; shudder, shutter; sic, sick; sight, spectacle; sighs, size; signature, autograph; sign, sine; signet, cygnet; side, sighed; sigher, sire; simple, simplistic; simulate, stimulate; sing, singe; sink, cinque; sit, sat, set;

slay, sleigh; sleave, sleeve; sleight, slight; sloe, slow; slogan, motto; slough, slew; slugger, sluggard; smear, smirch, smirk; smug, smudge; so, sew, sow, sow; soar, sore, sower; soared, sword; sold, soled; solder, sodder; sole, soul; solid, stolid; solitary, solitaire; some, sum; sometime, some time, sometimes; son, sun; soot, suit; sore, sower, soar; spacious, specious; speak, speech; special, especial, spacial; specie, species; specter, scepter; splatter, splutter; squib, squid; stable, staple; staid, stayed; stair, stare; stake, steak; stalactite, stalagmite, stalacto-stalagmite, stalemate; stamp, stomp; stanch, staunch; stationary, stationery; statue, stature, statute; steal, steel; steely, stele; steno, stereo; stentorian, stertorous; step, steppe; sticks, Styx; stink, stint; straight, strait; straightened, straitened; strut, strut; style, stile; subsequent, consequent; succinct, concise; suet, soot; suburb, superb; succor, sucker; suit, suite, sweet; summary, summery; Sunday, sundae; superintendence, superintendents; supernatural, unnatural; supposedly, presumably; surf, serf; surge, serge; surmise, premise; suspicion, suspect; swath, swathe; swayed, suede; symbol, cymbal

T tack, tact; tail, tale; take, bring; talents, talons; taper, tapir; tare, tear; tart, tart; tartar, Tartar; taught, taut, taunt; tax, tacks; tea, tee; teach, learn; team, teem; tear, tear, tier, tire; tease, teas, tees; temerity, timidity, timorous; tenant, tenet; tenor, tenure; tense, tents, tens; tepid, torpid; tern, turn; than, then; therefor, therefore; their, there, they’re; this, that; thong, throng; thorough, throughout; thrash, thresh; treachery, treason; threw, through, thru;

triumphal, triumphant; throw, throe; thrown, throne; throws, throes; thyme, time; tick, tic; tide, tied; timber, timbre; tinge, twinge; tire, Tyre, tier, tier; toad, toed, towed; to, too, two; toe, tow; told, tolled; ton, tun; tonic, tunic; tool, tulle; tort, torte; tortoise, turtle; torturous, tortuous; touchy, touche; tout, toot; tracked, tract; transience, transients; translate, transliterate; translucent, transparent; transsexual, transvestite; travel, travail; tray, trey; trident, strident; troop, troupe; trooper, trouper; trustee, trusty; turgid, tubid; tutor, Tudor; typography, topography

U umbrella, parasol, sombrero; unexceptionable, unexceptional; uninhibited, uninhabited; unique; unit, unite; university, college; urban, urbane; use, yews, ewes; usable, useful; utter, udder; unwanted, unwonted V vain, vane, vein; vale, vail, veil; valet, valley; varied, various; vary, very; vassal, vessel; venal, venial, vernal; venue, veneer; Venus, venous, venomous; veracious, voracious; veracity, voracity; verses, versus; vertex, vortex; vial, vile; vice, vise; villain, villein; visa, vista; victual, virtual; vindictive, vindication; vocation, avocation; volt, vault W wade, weighed; wafer, waver; waist, waste; wait, weight; want, wont, won’t

war, wore; ware, wear, were, where; wares, wears; wary, weary; warn, worn; wave, waive; waver, waiver; way, weigh, whey; wax, wane; wax, whacts; we, wee; weal, we’ll; weak, week; weather, whether; weave, we’ve; weed, we’d; weld, welled; wench, winch, wince; wet, whet; whale, whale, wail; wheal, wheel; which, witch; while, wile; whine, wine; whirl, whorl; whither, wither; who, whom; who’s, whose; whoa, woe; whole, hole; whose, who’s; widow, widower; wiggle, wriggle; wilt, welt; wind, wind, wined; worst, wurst; would, wood; wreak, wreck; Y yoke, joke, yolk; you, ewe, yew; you’re, your, yore; yule, you’ll