Wanton is an adjective meaning immoral or unchaste, merciless, unrestrainedly excessive, or undisciplined. The word also has rarer verb and noun senses—basically, to be wanton and one who is wanton. A wonton is a noodle-dough dumpling filled with pork or other meat and boiled in soup or fried. It’s a delicious Chinese side dish. The two are homophones, which makes their occasional confusion inevitable. [Read more...]
Addiction vs. dependence
Traditionally, addiction referred to physical dependencies on drugs, alcohol, or other substances. Today, however, the term dependence is increasingly used for physical dependencies, while addiction is more often used for psychological dependencies. So habitual drug or alcohol use might be called dependence, while compulsive indulgence in an activity such as gambling, sex, or internet use might be termed an addiction.
[Read more...]
Amiable vs. amicable
Amiable means good-natured and likable. It’s usually used to describe people. Amicable means characterized by goodwill. It describes relationships or interactions between people. So, for instance, two amiable people might share an amicable friendship. [Read more...]
Afflict vs. inflict
Afflict, which takes the preposition with, means to impose grievous physical or mental suffering on. Inflict, which takes the preposition on, means to deal or mete out. [Read more...]
Abjure vs. adjure
The verbs abjure and adjure both involve solemnity or earnestness, but their meanings are different. [Read more...]
Lend vs. loan
Traditionally, loan is the noun and lend is the verb. But while a minority of writers still observe this distinction, loan is increasingly used as a verb, and the trend is probably unstoppable. But if you wish to play it safe, it doesn’t hurt to abide by the traditional distinction, especially in formal writing. [Read more...]
Comprise, compose
Traditionally, parts compose the whole, and the whole comprises the parts. Comprise means to consist of or to be composed of, and it technically does not require of or any other helper words. The phrase is comprised of has two words too many. But, whether we like it or not, comprise is rapidly becoming a synonym of compose. We could save ourselves a lot of heartache by accepting it now. [Read more...]
Evoke vs. invoke
Evoke means (1) to summon or call forth, (2) to call to mind, and (3) to call up a memory from the past. Invoke means, primarily, to call upon, especially in reference to aid, assistance, or a higher power. Less common definitions include to cite for justification (as, for example, when a lawyer invokes a precedent to make an argument), to conjure, and to resort to. [Read more...]
Trawl vs. troll
Trawl means to catch fish with a large cone-shaped net. Among troll‘s several verb meanings is to fish by trailing a line behind a boat. Because both words denote types of fishing—albeit different types—they are often confused. This is easy to avoid if you remember that trawl is only used in fishing contexts (except when used metaphorically) and always involves a net. [Read more...]
Preventative vs. preventive
Preventive is the original adjective corresponding to prevent, but preventative has gained ground—now appearing about a third as often as preventive—and most dictionaries list it as an accepted variant. The two are the same in all their meanings. [Read more...]
