Acme vs acne

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Grammarist

Acme and acne are two words that are close in spelling and pronunciation, but have different meanings. We will examine the definitions of acme and acne, where these two words came from and some examples of their use in sentences.

Acme is the point of greatest achievement, the height of excellence, the peak of development. The word acme is often used as a name in businesses and in fictional businesses. The Acme Corporation was famously the fictional business that supplied Wile E. Coyote with products in the Road Runner Warner Brothers cartoons. The word acme was derived from the Greek word akmē, which means the highest point.

Acne is a skin condition that consists of inflamed sebaceous glands, resulting in red bumps and pimples. Acne is particularly common among adolescents, but may occur at any age. If untreated, severe cases of acne may leave lifelong scars. Acne is a mass noun, which is an uncountable noun that does not have a plural form. The word acne is derived from the Latin aknas, a meaning peak or facial eruption. Aknas is actually a corruption of the Greek word akmē, from which the word acme is derived.

Examples

The spectacle of the Super Bowl and NFL and college football is the acme of ideology, for in its full flower it exposes and manifests the essence of all ideological systems. (The Mason City Globe Gazette)

And this is as opportune a time as any to salute Bhansali’s cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee who is a magician, visionary par excellence who can put on screen images that poets and painters put into their creations when at the acme of inspiration. (The Khaleej Times)

Anyone who’s ever had a skin issue knows that it’s more than skin deep — serious skin conditions and acne alike can have both mental and emotional effects. (Allure Magazine)