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Weak is an adjective that means lacking physical strength or feeble. Weak may also mean lacking in moral strength, easily influenced or lured into temptation. A person or thing which exerts little force is considered weak. Related words are weaker, weakest and weakish. Weak comes from the Old English word …
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Biannual is an adjective which means occurring twice a year, the adverb form is biannually. Biannual is derived from the prefix bi-, which means two, twice, double, doubly, as it comes from the Latin bi-, meaning twice, double, and annual comes from the Old French twelfth century word, annuel, which …
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Let’s is a contraction of let us, often used as an imperative. If one can replace let’s with let us, then it is a contraction and therefore, needs an apostrophe. The use of contractions is not a modern phenomenon, contractions came into use during the period when Old English was …
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Staid is an adjective that means settled, unadventurous, sedate, steady of character. Staid is usually employed to signify someone stodgy or dull. The adverb form is staidly, the noun form is staidness. Staid as an adjectival use of the past participle stayed came about in the 1540s, within a decade …
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A rite of passage is an event, achievement or ceremony that marks a person’s passing from one stage of life to another. A rite of passage involves a change of status in one’s society. The term rite of passage comes from a French phrase first coined by the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep …
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An epic is a long poem, usually a story or ballad of ancient oral tradition that speaks about the adventures and deeds of a hero or legend. An epic may also refer to any long, narrative poem with the same style, structure and importance. Epic has also been applied to …
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Daylight Saving Time is the practice of adjusting clock time to achieve longer evening daylight, usually in summer. Clocks are set an hour ahead in the spring, then set back an hour in the autumn. The mnemonic “Spring forward, fall back” helps those who live in Daylight Saving Time areas …
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Breeches are short trousers that extend to or below the knee. When speaking informally, breeches is a term that may refer to any trousers. Breeches is a plural noun, the preferred pronunciation is BRIchiz. The word breeches appears around 1200, it comes from the Old English word brec, the plural …
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Prioritize means to arrange items in order of their importance, to designate something more important than other things. Prioritize may be a transitive or an intransitive verb. Prioritize is the North American spelling, related words are prioritizes, prioritized, prioritizing, prioritization and prioritizer. Prioritise is an accepted British spelling. Related words are prioritises, prioritised, …
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Rain, reign, and rein. They may seem simple words, but their similarity in sound can cause so much confusion, especially for writers. I always see these three words commonly misused or misspelled in indie books, leading to misunderstandings and sometimes even hilarious situations. So, I’ll delve into the differences between …