Append vs. Upend

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Grammarist

Append and upend are commonly confused words that are pronounced in the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the different meanings of the homophonic words append and upend, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.

Append means to attach, to add, or to supplement something. Append is a transitive verb, which is a verb that takes an object. Related words are appends, appended, appending, appendix. The word append is derived from the Old French word, apendre, which means to be dependent upon.

Upend means to turn something upside down or to place something on its end. Upend is also a transitive verb; related words are upends, upended, upending. The word upend is a closed compound word dating from the early 1800s, formed by combining the words up and end. A closed compound word is a word that is made up of two words joined together without hyphens or spaces. 

Examples

The graceful response is surprise and denial, to which you can append the innocent observation that you did not think they ever felt entirely at home in your old house with its rickety heating and piping. (UExpress)

The Seattle Times does not append comment threads to stories from wire services such as the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post or Bloomberg News. (Seattle Times)

New lawsuit could upend state’s problematic pot shop licensing process — again (Chicago Sun-Times)

Her coronation came at the conclusion of three surreal days that saw the greatest ever gymnast withdraw and completely upend expectations of how the event would unfold. (Wall Street Journal)

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