A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- Épée, foil or sabre
- A shot across the bow
- A slap in the face
- A slap on the wrist
- A snake in the grass
- A stitch in time saves nine
- A stone's throw
- Actualise vs actualize
- Ascribe vs subscribe
- At sixes and seven
- Auspicious vs suspicious
- Bait and switch and switch selling
- Biannual, biennial and semiannual
- Bimonthly and semimonthly
- Biweekly vs semiweekly
- By the skin of one's teeth
- Caduceus vs staff of Asclepius
- Car park vs parking lot
- Carved in stone, set in stone and written in stone
- Catalyse or catalyze
- Cease and surcease
- Cedar vs seeder
- Cede and seed
- Ceiling vs sealing
- Cel, cell or sell
- Cellar vs seller
- Censer vs censor vs censure vs sensor
- Cent, scent and sent
- Cereal vs serial
- Chip on your shoulder
- Cistern vs sister
- Conscience, conscious and self-conscious
- Conservatory, solarium or sunroom
- Daylight Saving Time or British Summer Time
- Declarative, imperative, exclamatory and interrogative sentences
- Decrepit vs deprecate
- Dire straits
- Dotage vs senility
- Energize vs energise
- Ensconce vs sconce
- Epithet vs sobriquet
- Equinox vs solstice
- Especially vs specially
- Excrete vs secrete
- Fall through the cracks and slip through the cracks
- First, second and third person
- Firsthand and secondhand vs first-hand and second-hand
- From soup to nuts
- Get the ball rolling and start the ball rolling
- Glass ceiling
- Go into a tailspin and send someone into a tailspin
- Good Samaritan
- Grasping at straws or clutching at straws
- Hay vs straw
- Homily vs sermon
- Hustle and side hustle
- Idiot savant or savant syndrome
- In situ
- Infuse vs suffuse
- Limelight vs spotlight
- Lion's share
- Lose face and save face
- Magic bullet and silver bullet
- Mobilize vs mobilise
- Move the goalposts and shift the goalposts
- Murphy's Law, Sod's Law and Finagle's Law
- On a shoestring and shoestring budget
- On the stump and stump speech
- On the wrong foot and on the right foot
- Parentheses vs brackets
- Pervert vs subvert
- Plain sailing, smooth sailing, and clear sailing
- Poor sport, sore loser and sore winner
- Preternatural vs supernatural
- Psalter vs salter
- Psychopath vs. sociopath
- Resolve vs solve
- Sabbatical vs sabbath
- Sac vs sack
- Saccharin vs. saccharineSaccharin (n): a white crystal powder used as a calorie-free sweetener. Saccharine (adj): 1. sweet; 2. cloyingly sweet; 3. excessively sentimental.
- Sachet vs sashay
- Sackcloth and ashes
- Sacred cow
- Sacrilege, sacrilegiousSacrilege: the misuse or desecration of something sacred. Sacrilegious: of or relating to sacrilege.
- Sadism, masochism and sadomasochism
- Safe-deposit boxnot safety-deposit box.
- Saidaforementioned.
- Sail vs sale
- Salacious
- Salad days
- Salient vs salience
- Salt of the earth
- Saltwater vs. salt water
- Salubrious vs lugubrious
- Salvage vs selvage or selvedge
- Same difference
- Same old same old
- Samovar vs scimitar
- Sanatorium vs sanatarium
- Sanctimonious vs sanctify
- Sanction
- Sang froidthe ability to be calm in difficult or dangerous situations.
- Sang vs sung
- Sangfroid
- Sanguine vs exsanguinate
- Sanitise vs sanitizesanitize in North America; sanitise everywhere else.
- Sank vs. sunkSank is the past tense. Sunk is the past participle.
- Sanswithout.
- Sarcasm
- Sarcophagus
- Sarcophagus vs mausoleum
- Sari vs sorry
- Sartorial vs satirical
- Satire vs satyr
- Satisficing vs satisfying
- Savanna vs. savannahsavanna in the U.S.; savannah everywhere else.
- Savant vs servant
- Save one's bacon
- Save something for a rainy day
- Saved by the bell
- Savior vs. savioursavior in the U.S.; saviour everywhere else.
- Savoir fairethe ability to do the right or appropriate thing in any situation.
- Savor vs saver
- Savvy
- Sawed vs sod
- Sawing logs and sawing wood
- Say when
- Scam or sham
- Scapegoat or escape goat
- Scared vs scarred
- Scarfs vs. scarvesScarfs is the older plural, but scarves is more common in today's English.
- Scatological
- Scavenger hunt
- Sceptic vs septic
- Sceptic vs. skepticskeptic in North America; sceptic everywhere else.
- Schadenfreude
- Schadenfreude pleasure in another's misfortune.
- Schizophrenia as an adjective
- Schmooze and shmooze
- Schmuck versus putz
- Scintilla
- Scion
- ScissorsIt is usually treated as plural, but making it singular is not wrong.
- Scofflaw
- Scorched earth policy
- Scot-freeunpunished or unharmed.
- SCOTUS
- Scraping the bottom of the barrel
- Scratch the surface
- Screed
- Scrip vs script
- Scrooge
- Scrumdiddlyumptious
- Scrummy
- Scuba
- Scuffle
- Scull vs skull
- Sculpture vs sculptor
- Scuttlebuttrumors or gossip.
- Sea change
- Seam vs seem
- Sear vs. seer vs. sereSear: burn with something hot. Seer: one that sees. Sere: withered.
- Seas, sees or seize
- Seasonable vs seasonal
- Seasons (capitalization)They are usually uncapitalized.
- Secede vs. succeedSecede: to withdraw formally. Succeed: 1. follow or replace; 2. accomplish something desired.
- Second string
- Second that emotion or notion or motion
- Second-guess
- Secret Santa
- Secret vs. secretiveSecret: hidden. Secretive: tending toward secrecy.
- Secular vs sacred
- Security blanket
- Sediment vs sentiment
- Sedimentary vs sedentary
- Sedition vs sedation
- See a man about a dog and see a man about a horse
- See eye to eye
- See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
- See vs sea
- Seen vs scene
- Segue vs Segway
- Seldomly an unnecessary variant of seldom, which is an adverb.
- Self vs self
- Self-quarantine vs self-isolation
- Selfie
- Selling like hotcakes
- Semi-, hemi-, and demi-
- Semicolon
- Seminal
- Semper fidelis
- Sensational vs sensationalistic
- Senses vs census
- Sensual vs. sensuousSensuous: 1. of or relating to the senses; 2. appealing to the senses. Sensual is mostly synonymous with sensuous, but it often bears erotic connotations.
- Sentence-ending prepositions
- Sentences
- Sentience vs sapience
- Sentienthaving sensations and perceptions.
- Sentient vs sentiment
- Separate vs separate
- Separate vs seperate
- Sepulcher, crypt, catacomb or mausoleum
- Sequacious
- Sequins vs sequence
- Seraphic
- Serf vs surf
- SeriesThe plural is uninflected.
- Serif vs seraph
- Serigraph vs lithograph
- Service (as a verb)When it's a verb, watch out for unintended sexual connotations.
- Serviette or napkin
- Servitude vs certitude
- Set up vs. setupSetup is a noun and an adjective, and it doesn't function as a verb. Set up is a phrasal verb.
- Sever vs severe
- Sew vs. sowSewing involves needle and thread or a sewing machine. To sow is to scatter seed or implant.
- Sewer vs sewer
- Shaggy-dog story
- Shake a leg
- Shake one's head vs nod one's head
- Shake vs sheikh
- Shall vs. will
- Shame vs ashamed
- Shanghai (as a verb)1. to kidnap; 2. to use fraud to compel someone to to do something.
- Shape up or ship out
- Sharable vs. shareableShareable is now preferred everywhere, even in the U.S.
- Shard or sherd
- Share and share alike vs per stirpes
- Sharp as a tack
- Shat vs. shittedShat is more common.
- Shaved vs. shaven
- Shear vs. sheerShear: to clip or cut fleece or hair. Sheer: 1. fine or transparent; 2. almost perpendicular; 3. to swerve.
- Sheath vs. sheatheSheath (n): a close-fitting dress or a case for a blade. Sheathe (v): to insert into a sheath.
- Shed vs. sheddedShed is unchanged in the past tense and as a past participle.
- Shelf vs. shelveShelf is a noun. Shelve is a verb.
- Shell game
- Shell outto pay, especially reluctantly.
- Shell-shocked
- Shellac, shellackShellac is the standard spelling.
- Shenanigans
- Sherbert vs. sherbetSherbet is the standard spelling.
- Shill vs chill
- Shill vs shell
- Shined vs. shoneShine makes shone when it means to emit light, and shined when it means to cause to gleam by polishing.
- Shiplap
- Ships passing in the night
- Shiv
- Shoe vs shoo
- Shone vs shown
- Shoo-ina sure winner.
- Shoot oneself in the foot
- Shoot the breeze
- Shooting fish in a barrel
- Shooting the messenger and don't shoot the messenger
- Shop till you drop
- Shopping cart or buggy
- Shore up
- Shore vs sure
- Short shrift
- Short shriftbrief and unsympathetic treatment.
- Shotgun vs rifle
- Shotgun wedding
- Should have, should've or should of
- Shoveled/shoveling vs. shovelled/shovellingshoveled/shoveling in the U.S.; shovelled/shovelling everywhere else.
- Show of hands
- Show one's cards and tip one's hand
- Show one's true colors
- Showboat
- Showrunnera person who both runs the day-to-day operations of a television show and guides the show creatively.
- Shriveled/shriveling vs. shrivelled/shrivellingshriveled and shriveling in the U.S.; shrivelled and shrivelling outside the U.S.
- Shticka performer's characteristic style or gimmick.
- Shuffle off this mortal coil
- Shut or close the barn door after the horse has bolted
- Shutter vs. shudder
- Sicused in quotations to indicate that the quoted text is reproduced exactly, with errors intact.
- Sic semper tyrannis
- Sic vs. sickThe verb meaning to set upon is spelled sic.
- Side hustle
- Side vs sighed
- Sight vs. siteSite: where something is located. Sight: something seen or worth seeing.
- Sign up vs signup
- Sign vs sine
- Signet vs cygnet
- Significant other
- Silicon vs. siliconeSilicon: a nonmetallic element found in the earth's crust. Silicone: one of a class of silicon-based chemical compounds used in various applications.
- Silva vs silver
- Silver lining
- Silver-tongued
- Silviculture
- Simile
- Simpatico1. likeable; 2. having an affinity; 3. tending to get along with others; 4. closely associated.
- Since vs because
- Since, sense and cense
- Sine die
- Sine qua non an indispensable element.
- Sing for one's supper
- Singly vs singularly
- Sink vs sync
- Sisyphean, Promethean or Herculean
- Sit at the feet of someone
- Sit vs set
- Site vs cite
- Sitting duck
- Sitting in the catbird seat
- Sitting on a powder keg
- Six of one, half a dozen of the other
- Six ways from Sunday
- Sizable or sizeable
- Skating on thin ice and on thin ice
- Skein vs scan
- Skid row vs skid road
- Skilful vs. skillfulskillful in the U.S.; skilful everywhere else.
- Skinflint
- Skort
- Skulduggery
- Skunkworks
- Slam dunka maneuver or plan certain to succeed.
- Slap-happy
- Slave driver
- Slay vs sleigh
- Slayed or slew
- Sled, sledge, sleigh and toboggan
- Sledge vs sludge
- Sleep with the fishes
- Sleight of handcunning trickery or craftiness.
- Slip of the tongue
- Slipshod
- Slough vs slew
- Slough vs slough
- Slow and steady wins the race
- Slow vs sloe
- Slumgullion and goulash
- Smack ofresemble, evoke, or be reminiscent of.
- Smarmy
- Smart alec and smart aleck
- Smartphone vs smart phone
- Smarty-pants and smarty-boots
- Smell a rat
- Smelled vs. smeltSmelled is preferred in North America. It and smelt are both common outside North America.
- Smite, smote, smittenPast tense: smote. Past participle: smitten.
- Smithereens
- Smoke and mirrors
- Smokey vs. smoky
- Smoking gun
- Smoothe, smoothenBoth can give way to the more common smooth, which is both an adjective and a verb.
- Smorgasbord1. a meal featuring a variety of dishes; 2. a varied collection, especially an abundant one.
- Snake oil, snake-oil salesmanIn modern figurative use, snake oil refers to a fraudulent remedy, especially one promoted and sold by a quack. The quacks who push these products are snake-oil salesmen.
- Snark
- Sneaked vs. snuckSnuck is fairly new, but it became standard remarkably fast, and it now faces little objection.
- Snipe hunt
- Snitch
- Snobbery or snobbishness
- So to speakIt often adds nothing.
- Soapbox
- Soar vs sore
- Soared vs sword
- Sob sister and sob story
- Soccer mom and hockey mom
- Social vs sociable
- Sojourn vs adjourn
- Solder vs soldier
- Soldiers, marines, airmen, sailorsIn the U.S military, Marines are in the Marines, soldiers are in the army, airmen are in the Air Force, and sailors are in the Navy.
- Sole vs soul
- Soliloquy vs monologue
- Solitaire and patience games
- Somber vs. sombreSomber in the U.S.; sombre everywhere else.
- Some odd1. approximately: 2. (in "some odd reason") some unknown or mysterious.
- Some vs sum
- Some way vs. somewayThe one-word form is yet to gain acceptance.
- Somebody vs. someoneThey are interchangeable.
- Someday vs. some daySomeday: at an indefinite future time. Some day: a certain day (specified or unspecified).
- Someplace vs. some placeThe two-word form is standard. The one-word form is considered colloquial.
- Somersaultthe standard spelling.
- Something smells fishy
- Sometime vs. some timeSometime: a vague, unspecified time. Some time: quite a while.
- Sooner rather than laterThere are good alternatives to this wordy and illogical phrase.
- Sophistry
- Sorbet
- Sort ofIt is often unnecessary.
- Sorted vs sordid
- SOS and Mayday
- Sot vs sought
- Sound bite
- Sound like a broken record
- Sounding board
- Soup upto modify something to increase its power, efficiency, or impressiveness.
- Sour grapes
- Sow vs sow
- Sow wild oatsto indulge in adventure or promiscuity during youth.
- Spaces between sentencesOne space is the standard style preference throughout all types of 21st-century writing, with rare exceptions.
- Spake
- Spanish fly
- Spare the rod; spoil the child
- Spat or spitted
- Spatter vs. splatterSpatter: to scatter or dash in small drops. Splatter: to splash, spill, or dash a substantial amount of liquid, usually messily.
- Speak for yourself
- Speak now or forever hold your peace
- Speak of the devil
- Speak toIt is widely used to mean show, demonstrate, express, relate to, address, or speak about. These sense are new.
- Speak truth to power
- Speak with a forked tongue
- Speaks volumes
- Spearhead
- Speciality vs. specialtyThey are generally interchangeable.
- SpeciesIt is both singular and plural.
- Specious vs spurious
- Speck vs spec
- Specter vs. spectrespecter in the U.S.; spectre everywhere else.
- Spectra vs. spectrumsThe Latin form, spectra prevails, but the English plural is not incorrect and is slowly gaining ground.
- Sped vs. speededBoth are common, and there is no widely observed difference between them.
- Spelled vs. speltspelled in the U.S; everywhere else, spelled and spelt about equally often.
- Spend a penny
- Spendthriftsomeone who spends money recklessly or wastefully. It also works as an adjective.
- Spic and span vs spick and span
- Spiel
- Spiffy
- Spill the beans
- Spilled vs. spiltSpilled is generally more common, especially in North America, where the older spilt is now rare.
- Spin a yarn
- Spin doctor
- Spin one's wheels
- Spinster
- Spit and image vs. spitting imagean exact likeness. Spit and image is the original form, but spitting image is now far more common.
- Spitballing
- Spite vs respite
- Spitz vs spits
- Split infinitives
- Split the difference
- Spoiled vs. spoiltIn North America, spoiled is both the past tense and the past participle, and spoilt is rare. Outside North America, the latter often appears as an adjective.
- Spoof
- Spoonerism vs malapropism
- Spoopy and creppy
- Spore vs spoor
- Spork
- Spouse vs espouse
- SpreadedSpread is usually uninflected.
- Spruce up
- Spry
- Spur vs spurn
- Spur vs. spurnSpur: to incite. Spurn: to reject.
- Square meal
- Squinch
- Stab in the back
- Stadia vs. stadiumsStadiums is far more common in 21st-century usage.
- Staff vs staph
- Staid vs stayed
- Stained glass not stain glass.
- Stair vs stare
- Stake vs steak
- Stalactite, stalagmiteStalactites hang from above, and stalagmites grow up from the floor.
- Stalking horse
- Stanch vs. staunchStanch: stop the flow of, check, allay. Staunch: firm and steadfast.
- Stand alone vs standalone
- Stand the test of time
- Stand up vs prop up
- Standby vs. stand byStandby is a noun, adjective, and adverb. Stand by is the verb.
- Stank, stunkStank is the past tense; stunk is the past participle.
- Star-crossedopposed by fate.
- Starry-eyed and stars in one's eyes
- Start from scratch
- Start with a clean slate and wipe the slate clean
- Stat vs now
- State of the artthe current highest level of development in a field.
- Stationary vs. stationeryStationary: not moving or incapable of being moved: Stationery: writing paper and envelopes.
- Statue vs statute
- Status quothe existing condition or state of affairs.
- Statute of limitationsa law setting a time limit on legal cases.
- Stave off
- Stay on top of
- Staycation
- Steal someone's thunder
- Steal vs steel
- STEM
- Step into the breach
- Step on someone's toes
- Step up to the plate
- Step vs steppe
- Stick a fork in it
- Stick one's neck out
- Stick out like a sore thumb
- Stick to one's guns and stand to one's guns
- Stick to, stick by, or stick with
- Stick-in-the-mud
- Sticker shock
- Sticktoitivenessdogged perseverance.
- Sticky fingers
- Stir the pot
- Stir-crazy
- Stock vs stalk
- Stock, sharesShares are units of stock.
- Stock-still
- Stockholm syndrome
- Stocking stuffer and stocking filler
- Stolen vs stollen
- Stomping ground and stamping ground
- Stone cold and stone-cold
- Stonewall
- Stool pigeon
- Stop and smell the roses
- Storey vs. storyThe word for a building level is spelled story in the U.S. and storeys everywhere else.
- Straight A's
- Straight from the horse's mouth
- Straight from the shoulder
- Straight shooter
- Straight vs. straitStraight: not curving. Strait: a narrow channel joining two larger bodies of water.
- Strait-lacedstrict in behavior or morality.
- Straitjacketnot straight jacket.
- Stratagem vs. strategyStratagem: a plan or maneuver involving subterfuge or unconventional tactics. Strategy: 1. a plan of action; 2. the art of using plans.
- Strategy vs tactic
- Straw man and man of straw
- Straw man fallacy
- Straw that broke the camel’s back and the last straw
- Strike while the iron is hot
- Striped/striping vs stripped/stripping
- Strived, striven, stroveStrived and strove are both common as the past tense. Strived and striven are both common as the past participle.
- Stroller or pushchair
- Strop vs strap
- Stuffing vs dressing
- Stupefaction
- Sty vs stye
- Style vs stile
- Sub rosa vs sub-rosa
- Sub vs infra
- Subconscious vs. unconsciousUnconscious is the more scientific term.
- Subject to vs subjected to
- Subjects and predicates
- Subjugated vs subjected to
- Subjunctive mood
- Subordinating conjunctions
- Suborn
- Subpoena
- Substantial vs. substantiveSubstantial: large or important. Substantive: meaningful.
- Subtext
- Subtle vs. subtilSubtle is the standard spelling today's English.
- Suede vs swayed
- Suffice it to say1. let us just say; 2. I shall just say.
- Suffixes
- Sugar daddy
- Sugarcoat
- Sui generisunique.
- Suit vs suite
- Suite vs sweet
- Sulfur vs. sulphursulfur in the U.S. and in most scientific publications internationally; usually sulphur in nonscientific writing outside the U.S.
- Sulk vs skulk
- Summa cum laude or magna cum laude
- Summary vs. summerySummary: a short description of something. Summery: of, relating to, or evocative of summer.
- Summons and summonses
- Sun vs son
- Sunday driver
- Sunday vs sundae
- Super vs supra
- Super vs ultra
- Supercilious
- Supermoon
- Supersede or supercede
- Superstorm
- Supply and demand
- SupposablyIt is usually a colloquial variant of supposedly, though it is a word in its right, albeit a very rare one.
- Supposed toSuppose to is common, but perhaps out of place in serious writing.
- Surely vs surly
- Surge vs serge
- Surgeon vs sturgeon
- Surplus vs surplice
- Surrogacy
- Surveilto engage in surveillance.
- Suspect vs suspect
- Sutler vs settler
- Svengali(n., pl. svengalis) a person who controls another’s mind or has the ability to control others, usually with sinister intent.
- Swan song= the last work of someone's career before death or retirement.
- Swanning around and swanning about
- Swashbuckle
- Swatch vs swath
- Swath vs. swatheSwath (n): 1. the width of a scythe stroke; 2. a path made by mowing; 3. something like a path made by mowing. Swathe: to wrap or bind with or as with a bandage.
- Swatting
- Sweat vs. sweatedBoth forms are common and accepted.
- Sweep something under the rug and sweep something under the carpet
- Sweeped or swept
- Sweet tooth
- Sweeten the pot
- Swing for the fences
- Sword of Damocles= a looming threat.
- Sycophant
- Symbol vs cymbal
- Symbolic vs symbiotic
- Synchronise or synchronize
- Synecdoche
- Synonyms
- Systematic vs systematical
- Systematic vs. systemicSystematic: carried out using step-by-step procedures. Systemic: deeply engrained in the system.
- Tempest in a teapot and storm in a teacup
- The squeaky wheel gets the grease
- Top banana and second banana
- Training wheels vs stabilisers
- Urban, suburban and rural
- Valedictorian and salutatorian
- Wrench and spanner
- Yam vs sweet potato