A
- Abject vs object
- Abracadabra
- Accent vs accentuate
- Accept vs Except
- Access
- Accessory vs accessary
- Accost
- Adam’s apple
- Adaptable or adaptive
- Addlepated, addlebrained and addleheaded
- Adduce vs educe
- Advent
- Adventurous vs adventuresome
- Ad-lib and ad lib
- Aegis
- Affluenza
- Aggrandize
- Agitprop
- Agog or agape
- Agreement Vs Agreeance – Which Is Correct?
- Alliteration vs assonance
- Alma mater
- Also-ran
- Amative or amatory
- Amends vs amends
- American Indian vs Native American
- Anachronism
- Anamorphic
- Anathema
- Angel vs. Angle – How to Remember the Difference
- Annal vs annual
- Anodyne vs analgesic
- Another string in your bow
- Antediluvian
- Ante- vs anti-
- Antichrist
- Antifa
- Antimacassar
- Anyday vs any day
- Anymore or any more
- Anyone or any one
- Apologetics
- Apostle
- Appellation vs appellative
- Apple-polish
- Approbation vs approval
- Arcane and obsolete
- Arise or rise
- Artesian vs artisan
- ASAP
- Ascribe vs subscribe
- Assignation or assignment
- Astrology vs astronomy
- Asylum
- Atlas
- Attribute vs attribute
- At a loose end
- August vs august
- Autobiography vs biography
- Au fait
- Au pair
- Aw or awe
B
- Backstab
- Backwater or backwaters
- Bailiwick
- Bain-marie vs double boiler
- Balderdash
- Ball vs bawl
- Bamboozle
- Bane
- Bark vs barque
- Barnstorm
- Bastion
- Beachcomber
- Beach vs beech
- Behalf
- Behold and beholden
- Behoove
- Belle vs beau
- Bellwether
- Bellyache
- Benchmark
- Benefactor vs patron
- Bent or bended
- Beside or besides
- Besotted
- Bespeak vs bespoke
- Bespeckled or bespectacled
- Bigwig
- Big kahuna
- Bingeing or binging
- Bingo
- Bite-size or bite-sized
- Bivouac
- Black market
- Blather vs blabber
- Bling
- Blitzkrieg
- Blockbuster
- Blooper
- Bloviate
- Blowhard and windbag
- Bluetooth
- Blue blood
- Bodega
- Bogeyman
- Boggle the mind and mind-boggling
- Bohemian
- Bollocks vs bollocking
- Bombogenesis
- Bon vivant
- Boondocks vs boonies
- Boot camp
- Bowdlerize
- Braggadocio
- Braggart vs bragger
- Brainwash
- Brand spanking new
- Bric-a-brac and knick-knack
- Bridezilla
- Brief vs debrief
- Bring vs take
- Bromance
- Brouhaha
- Bugbear or bugaboo
- Bullseye or bull’s eye
- Bumpkin
- Bunk vs debunk
- Busybody
- Butterfingers
- Buzzword
C
- Cahoots
- Calumny
- Camaraderie vs comradery
- Canard
- Candor or candour
- Candy corn
- Cantankerous
- Cantor vs canter
- Capitulate vs recapitulate
- Carbon copy
- Caretaker vs caregiver
- Carpetbagger
- Car hood and car bonnet
- Cassandra
- Catcall
- Caucus
- Cavalcade
- Cay, quay and key
- Celebrant or celebrator
- Certifiable
- Chain letter
- Chalk up vs. chock
- Chapstick
- Charade and charades
- Charlatan
- Charnel house
- Chatbot
- Chav
- Cheapskate
- Check kiting
- Chicanery
- Chick flick and chick lit
- Choate or inchoate
- Chock-a-block vs chockablock
- Chortle
- Christmas Adam
- Chunder or chunter
- Cisgender vs transgender
- Citizen journalism
- Civic vs. civil
- Civil rights and human rights
- Claptrap
- Cleave
- Clew vs clue
- Clickbait
- Cliffhanger
- Cloth vs clothes
- Cloture vs closure
- Cloying and mawkish
- Coal, cole or kohl
- Cockamamie
- Coddle and mollycoddle
- Cold-call
- Collocate vs colocate
- Comeuppance
- Commencement
- Conservatory, solarium or sunroom
- Constant vs consistent
- Content or contented
- Contumely
- Conundrum
- Convivial vs congenial
- Cooties
- Cornball and corny
- Cosplay
- Cottage industry
- Cotton candy or cotton floss or fairy floss
- Covert vs overt
- Coward vs cowered
- Crackerjack
- Crap
- Creature comfort
- Crèche and manger
- Crowdsourcing vs crowdfunding
- Cruciferous
- Cryptid
- Cul-de-sac
- Curmudgeon
- Cut off your nose to spite your face
- Cybersquatting
- Cyber-
- Cynical
D
- Debark or disembark
- Deepnet, darknet and deep web
- Defenestration
- Delegate vs delegate
- Deleterious vs detrimental
- Demagogue vs demigod
- Demeanor or demeanour
- Demon vs daemon
- Deplane or disembark
- Deteriorate vs decline
- Devil is in the details vs. God is in the detail
- Dewclaw
- Diagram
- Dibs and calling dibs
- Dichotomy vs paradox
- Dickensian
- Dietician or dietitian
- Dilapidated
- Dirigible or blimp
- Disdain or distain
- Distaff
- Ditto and ditto mark
- Dogged vs dogged
- Doggerel
- Dog-ear
- Done vs dun
- Donner or Donder
- Donnybrook
- Don’t’s or don’ts
- Doodle
- Doomsday vs Domesday
- Dos or do’s
- Dotage vs senility
- Dotard
- Doublethink, doublespeak or double-talk
- Downplay or play down
- Downright vs outright
- Doxing and doxxing
- Dreidel or dreidl
- Drive-by
- Druthers
- Dry goods
- Duck tape or duct tape
- Due to vs because of
- Dumpster fire
- Dumpster vs dumpster
- Duplicate vs duplicity
E
- Earworm
- Ear candy and eye candy
- Easter egg
- Ecumenical
- Effete
- Eggnog
- Elbow grease
- Embolization and embolisation
- Emeritus
- Enmity vs animosity
- Ensconce vs sconce
- Entree vs entrée
- Épée, foil or sabre
- Epidemic vs. Pandemic
- Ergonomics
- Erupt vs irrupt
- Esoteric vs archaic
- Especial
- Estimation or approximation
- Euphemism
- Evidence vs evince
- Excelsior and wood wool
- Expose vs exposé
F
- Fabulist
- Factious vs facetious
- Factotum
- Fairy-tale ending
- Fantods
- Faro, farrow or pharaoh
- Faux-naïf
- Feckless
- Femme fatale
- Ferment or foment
- Festivus
- Fete
- Fiefdom
- Fifth column
- Filibuster
- Finite Verbs – Definition and Examples
- Firebrand
- Firefight
- Fireplace vs hearth
- First aid
- Flagship
- Flash mob
- Flip one’s lid vs. flip one’s wig
- Flummox
- Fluorescent vs incandescent
- Folderol
- Foley
- Font vs fount
- Fool’s errand
- Foot long
- Formulas vs formulae
- For the birds
- Fraud or defraud
- Fraught
- Freegan and freeganism
- Freeze vs frieze
- Frenemy
- Freudian slip
- Frogmarch or frog-march
- Funereal
- Fusion vs confusion
- Futz vs putz
G
- Gaiety or mirth
- Gainsay
- Gallimaufry
- Gallop vs Gallup
- Galore
- Galumph
- Game changer
- Gavel-to-gavel
- Genericide
- Gentrification
- Geographic vs geographical
- Geronimo!
- Gerrymander
- Gestalt
- Ghosting
- Gibberish
- Glad-hand
- Glamping
- Glass ceiling
- Glitch
- Goldbrick
- Golden ticket
- Goober
- Goodly
- Google vs google
- Goosebumps, goose pimples and gooseflesh
- Goose-step
- Gourmet vs gourmand
- Go-between
- Graffiti
- Grammarist
- Grandfather (as a verb)
- Grinch
- Grok
- Gross vs net
- Groupthink
- Gruel vs grueling
- Gumption
- Gun-shy
- Guyline vs guideline
H
- Halfhearted and half-hearted
- Half-baked
- Halitosis
- Halloween or Hallowe’en
- Halve vs have
- Ham-fisted and ham-handed
- Hangdog
- Hanky-panky
- Harbinger
- Harridan and harpy
- Haymaker
- Heavy-handed
- Hector
- Helpless vs hapless
- Helter skelter or helter-skelter
- Henpeck
- Heretofore or hitherto
- Heyday
- Hieroglyph vs hierograph
- Highbrow and lowbrow
- Highfalutin
- Hinky
- Hive mind
- Hoax
- Hobo, tramp, bum, or gutter punk
- Hobson’s choice
- Hocus-pocus
- Hokey-pokey, hokey-cokey and hokey-tokey
- Holier-than-thou
- Honcho
- Honeymoon
- Hoodwink
- Hoosegow
- Hootenanny
- Hope or hopes
- Horn of plenty and cornucopia
- Hosanna
- Hot button
- Houndstooth
- How’s it going
- Hubris
- Hullabaloo
- Humdinger
- Hunky-dory
- Hunt-and-peck
- Hush puppy, hushpuppy or hush-puppy
- Hustle and side hustle
- Hygge
- Hyperbole
I
- Ibid vs idem
- Ideologue
- Idiot savant or savant syndrome
- Ignoramus
- Imaginary or imaginative
- Imbroglio
- Impromptu or improvised
- Improvise vs. improvize
- Incase or encase
- Incommunicado
- Incomprehensive or incomprehensible
- Indian corn
- Indian summer
- Infomercial
- Inroad vs inroads
- Intellectual property
- Invite (as a noun)
- Irk
- Itchy feet
J
K
L
- Lackadaisical
- Ladybug and ladybird
- Lagniappe
- Landlubber
- Latchkey kid and latchkey child
- Later vs latter
- Laughing stock
- Leaned or leant
- Leery vs leary
- Leet, leetspeak and 1337
- Leeway
- Legal vs legit
- Legitimate vs legitimitize
- Lei
- Leotard vs tights
- Lickety-split
- Lifetime or life time
- Lilliputian
- Limbo
- Limelight vs spotlight
- Lip-sync and lip-synch
- Listserv
- Loch vs lock
- Lodestar
- Logo
- Long in the tooth
- Long johns vs union suit and combination suit
- Long pig
- Loonie or loony
- Loophole
- Loop de loop or loop the loop
- Lothario
- Low-key and lowkey
- Luddite
- Lukewarm
- Lyme disease vs lime disease
M
- Macabre
- MacGyver
- Malarkey
- Marsala vs masala
- Mary Sue
- Mask vs masque
- Maverick
- Mcjob
- Meme
- Meretricious vs meritorious
- Merry Christmas vs Happy Christmas
- Meta
- Me vs mi
- Microfinance, microcredit and microloan
- Mic drop
- Militate or mitigate
- Milquetoast vs milktoast
- Misogyny and misandry
- Mixtape
- Mob or demob
- Mogul
- Mojo
- Mollycoddle
- Molotov cocktail
- Momager
- Montage
- Moonlight
- Moonshine
- Moratorium
- More vs moor
- Mortar board
- Mothball
- Muckamuck, mucky-muck and muckety-muck
- Muckraking
- Mudslinging
- Mumbo jumbo
N
O
P
- Packed vs pact
- Panhandle
- Parade float
- Paralympics
- Paraphernalia
- Parkour
- Parsimony
- Passerbys or passersby
- Passing strange
- Patois
- Patsy
- Paucity
- Pay the piper
- Peccadillo
- Pejorative
- Pell-mell
- Pentagon
- Penultimate
- Peripatetic
- Perjury
- Pettifogger
- Petulant vs impetuous
- Pet peeve
- Phosphene
- Photobomb
- Phubbing
- Picayune
- Pidgin vs pigeon
- Piecemeal
- Pigeonhole
- Piggyback
- Piggy bank
- Pin money
- Piping hot
- Pissant
- Pitchblende
- Pitch-perfect and picture-perfect
- Pithy
- Pixelated vs. pixilated
- Plainclothes
- Plaintiff vs defendant
- Platypi vs platypuses
- Pleather and Naugahyde
- Point-blank
- Poker face
- Polka dot
- Pollyanna
- Ponzi scheme and Ponzi game
- Pooh-bah or poobah
- Pooped
- Popinjay
- Poppycock
- Port vs. starboard
- Post-truth
- Potluck
- Potter’s field
- Pragmatism
- Pram, baby carriage and baby buggy
- Primal scream
- Privy
- Procrastinate
- Prodigal and prodigy
- Prodigious vs prolific
- Progeny vs prodigy
- Promulgate vs propagate
- Propitiate vs expiate
- Protean vs protein
- Proverbial vs figurative
- Proverb vs adage
- Proximal vs proximate
- Psychopath vs. sociopath
- Punch list
- Puppy love or poppy love
- Pusillanimous
R
- Raconteur
- Radical
- Rambunctious
- Ramshackle
- Rat race
- Raven vs ravenous
- Razzle-dazzle and razzmatazz
- Razzmatazz or razzamatazz
- Recant vs recount
- Reconnoiter
- Redneck vs hick vs hillbilly
- Red-letter day
- Referendum
- Reforested wood
- Reindeer or caribou
- Renege vs rescind
- Repair vs reparation
- Repetition vs repetitiveness
- Requiem
- Retcon
- Retrograde vs anterograde or antegrade
- Retronym
- Riffraff
- Rigmarole
- Riposte vs repost
- Rip-off or rip off
- Risky vs risqué
- Road hog
- Road kill or roadkill
- Robot, android or droid
- Roman-à-clef
- Rookie
- Round robin
- Royal “we”
- Rubberneck
- Rubenesque
- Rummy
S
- Sachet vs sashay
- Sacred cow
- Said the actress to the bishop
- Salient vs salience
- Salubrious vs lugubrious
- Samovar vs scimitar
- Sanction
- Sangfroid
- Sarcasm
- Sarcophagus vs mausoleum
- Satisficing vs satisfying
- Savvy
- Scatological
- Scavenger hunt
- Schema or schematic
- Schizophrenia as an adjective
- Schmooze and shmooze
- Schmuck versus putz
- Scintilla
- Scion
- Scot-free
- Screwball
- Scrumdiddlyumptious
- Scrummy
- Scuba
- Sculpture vs sculptor
- Second-guess
- Security blanket
- Segue vs Segway
- Self vs self
- Sensational vs sensationalistic
- Sequacious
- Seraphic
- Serigraph vs lithograph
- Serviette or napkin
- Shaggy-dog story
- Shake vs sheikh
- Shanghai (as a verb)
- Shenanigans
- Shiv
- Shopping cart or buggy
- Shop till you drop
- Showboat
- Shrinking violet
- Shut-in
- Signet vs cygnet
- Silver lining
- Sine die
- Sisyphean, Promethean or Herculean
- Skort
- Skunkworks
- Sled, sledge, sleigh and toboggan
- Slipshod
- Slow vs sloe
- Slumgullion and goulash
- Smarmy
- Smartphone vs smart phone
- Smarty-pants and smarty-boots
- Snark
- Snitch
- Snobbery or snobbishness
- Sob sister and sob story
- Social vs sociable
- Sorbet
- SOS and Mayday
- Sound bite
- Spanish fly
- Spartan
- Spearhead
- Spiel
- Spiffy
- Spitballing
- Spoof
- Spoonerism vs malapropism
- Spork
- Squinch
- Star-crossed
- Stat vs now
- Staycation
- Steal vs steel
- Stem-winder or stemwinder
- Stigma, stigmas or stigmata
- Stir-crazy
- Stock-still
- Stool pigeon
- Sty vs stye
- Subtext
- Sub rosa vs sub-rosa
- Sub vs infra
- Sugar daddy
- Sunday driver
- Supersede or supercede
- Super vs supra
- Surgeon vs sturgeon
- Surrogacy
- Suspect, person of interest or perpetrator
- Swanning around and swanning about
- Swashbuckle
- Sweeped or swept
- Sweet tooth
- Sycophant
- Symbol vs cymbal
- Synchronise or synchronize
- Systematic vs systematical
T
- Tabula rasa
- Tad bit vs tidbit
- Take the mickey out of someone
- Taro vs tarot
- Tar baby
- Taser
- Tattletale vs telltale
- Teetotaler, teetotaller
- Terra firma
- Terrific vs terrifying
- Terroir and terror
- Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day
- Thesauri or thesaurusus
- The Interrobang Punctuation Mark(‽) – How to Use it Properly
- Thong or flip-flop
- Thrall
- Threshold or threshhold
- Through and through or thru and thru
- Throw the baby out with the bathwater
- Thumbs up and thumbs down
- Tiddlywinks and tiddleywinks
- Tinseltown
- Tiny house and tiny home
- Titular
- Tmesis
- Tongue-lashing
- Tool vs tulle
- Top banana and second banana
- Toss-up
- Touche or touché
- Tough vs tuff
- Toweled or towelled
- Towhead
- Track and field and athletics
- Tragedy vs travesty
- Trainer or trainor
- Triage
- Trick or treat vs trick-or-treat
- Troglodyte
- Troika
- Tsunami vs tidal wave
- Turncoat
- Turnkey vs turn key
- Turpitude vs turpentine
- Tween
U
V
W
- Wainscot or chair rail
- Wallflower
- Wallop and pack a wallop
- Wassail
- Weekend
- Weigh in
- What Does The Acronym A.K.A. or AKA Mean?
- Wheelhouse
- Wherewithal
- Whig vs wig
- Whippersnapper
- Whipsaw
- Whoa vs woe
- Wiki
- Willy-nilly
- Wiseacre
- Womp womp
- Woolgathering
- Worrywart and worryguts
- Wright vs write
- Writer’s block
- Wrote vs rote
