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“deserts”
desert (diz URT), deserts (diz URTS)
1. Suitable rewards or punishments: "He will get his just deserts when he is punished for keeping his daughter locked away as his sex slave."
2. Etymology: from about 1300, borrowed from Old French deserte, past participle of deservir, "be worthy to have"; from Latin deservire, "to serve well, to devote oneself to".
2. Etymology: from about 1300, borrowed from Old French deserte, past participle of deservir, "be worthy to have"; from Latin deservire, "to serve well, to devote oneself to".
This entry is located in the following unit:
seri-, ser-
(page 2)
desert, desert, deserts, dessert
desert (di ZURT) (verb)
To leave, to forsake, or to abandon; AWOL (Absent Without Leave): A person can desert from the military service during war just once and that would be the final act.
If their nest is disturbed, birds will often desert it.
desert (DEZ urt) (noun)
A dry, barren region: A person can go walking out into the desert without water just once because he or she probably would not survive or do it again.
deserts (di ZURTS) (noun)
That which is deserved or a punishment that someone deserves: The people in the community all wanted to see the criminal receive his just deserts.
dessert (di ZURT) (noun)
Sweet food served at the end of a meal: Elvira and Lorene had ice cream and apple pie for their dessert.
While Marta was having her dessert in the restaurant, she was wishing that she could desert her broken down car right there in the desert.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group D; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 3)
(from the depths of the ocean floors to the highest mountains, from dry deserts to grasslands, and the warm and wet tropical areas; all provide each form of life its preferred habitat)