Confusing Words Clarified: Group F; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(lists of "F" sections that are organized into what for some people are confusing groups of words)
I hope I do not live to see
The death of the apostrophe.
For readers all will suffer fits
In disentangling its from it’s,
And they may also rave and rant,
Unable to tell cant from can’t;
Not to mention how they feel
When they mix up well and we’ll.
If you have any problems understanding the pronunciation symbols, go to this Pronunciation Chart for clarifications.
2. To search for something by feeling; such as, using the hand in an effort to find something: Marilyn had to fish around in her purse for her keys.
A Fishy Tale
Last year was twice the size,
And make a big production of
Their rods and lures and flies.
They tell the tallest tales, it seems,
Straight-faced and without blinking;
It's not exactly lies, you know,
But rather fishful thinking.
This winter I plan to relax and fish for fishes or fish on the frozen lake. I need the break because I was very stressed after receiving a phish on the internet.
Here is a man who enjoys having a variety of fish in his living room.
2. A separation or division; a schism or split: The fissure of the castes resulted in countless subcastes.
Years ago I heard the story about a fisher who was wading in the lake and caught his foot in a fissure on the lake bottom.
The phisher was phishing a web page for information about fishing while, at the same time, he was trying to get the credit card numbers of visitors to the site.
The word inflammable actually means "able to burn"; while "nonflammable" means "unable or unlikely to burn".
The prefix "in-", used with inflammable is an intensifier not a "negative" as with such words as "inhospitable", "inhuman", "insensible", "indecent", "inadequate", etc. It has been a mistake believed by many people that inflammable meant "not flammable" and some serious injuries resulted over the years because of this misunderstanding.
As a consequence, many English-speaking countries passed laws that have required manufacturers of materials and substances that burn easily to use the word "flammable" in place of inflammable, which is considered less ambiguous or confusing.
So remember that inflammable comes from "inflame", which, in this case, means "to set on fire" and not from "in-", "not" + "flammable", "combustible".
In the confusion at the store, which was caused by a customer's inflammable temper, Joseph was unable to read the sign to see if the can of solvent was flammable or nonflammable.
2. To burst out suddenly in anger, violence, etc.: Many people flare up when a child's abuse is revealed.
2. The taking of a person's possessions by the use of force or an authority: The new government taxes seemed to be like a flayer of the peoples' earnings.
3. The act of harshly blaming or severely criticizing: The husband received a flayer from his wife when she found out where he had been that night.
Reginald, the newspaper writer, had a flair for words when he was writing about corrupt government officials.
He appeared to be a flayer of the reputations of politicians and, as a result, the response of his targeted victims was to flare up in angry indignation.
A dog could be thinking, as it scratches the itching caused by an insect, flee off me flea or sometimes the canine simply flees from the fleas whenever it is possible.
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
"Let us fly!" said the flea.
So, they flew through a flaw in the flue.
If Deana puts flea powder on her dog, each flea will certainly flee, or die.
2. Small bits or flakes: Luis could see flecks of dandruff on the collar of his jacket.
2. To bend something pliant or elastic: This material has the ability to flex which is good for doing Leann's exercises.
Ruthie loves this strip of plastic because whenever she wants to flex it, the flecks of silver sparkle in the sunshine.
2. A soft cloth that is used to make warm clothes: Lucile went to the women's apparel store to see if she could buy a warm jacket or coat made of fleece.
2. To shear or to clip the wool from sheep: They had to spend a lot of time trying to fleece all of their sheep before the truck came to pick up the clipped fleece.
The rancher decided to fleece the fleece from the sheep and he was determined to sell the fleece for a fair price and not to let the unscrupulous middle men fleece him.
The doctor wanted to flush Haley's eyes with a special solution.
2. To become red in the face because of heat, emotion, anger, etc.: Selma always used to flush when her new boyfriend's name was mentioned.3. To even or level with another surface: Willie told the carpenter that the bookshelves and the wall should flush with each other.
The article in the paper provided information to flesh out the details of the engineering project to raise the level of the road to flush with the sidewalk.
The details of the article made the engineer flush with anger because the plans were supposed to be secret.
2. Soft and thick: This succulent plant has very fleshy leaves.
The politician seemed to be a bit fleshy because his hands were large and soft; his fingers were so fleshy that they reminded Janice of the thick water-storing leaves on her plants at home.
2. An organ pipe sounded by means of a current of air striking a lip in the side of the pipe and causing the air within to vibrate: The flue of the organ had to be repaired first before the organist could play.
Flu
is both affirmative and negative; sometimes the eyes have it and sometimes the nose.A chimney cleaner was telling a customer that he and his partner clean chimneys with a big blast of air called a flue shot.
Benjamin caught the flu the same evening as the flue of the chimney was blocked and the room had become smoky. He had to go to bed and from the window he watched how the airplanes flew over the trees on their way to the airport.
2. A series of stairs going from one level or floor to another: He broke his arm when he fell down a flight of stairs.
The plight of the passengers on the flight from overseas was not known.
2. To toss in the air, imparting a spin; to turn over: You could see him flip through the pages of the phone book looking for Betty's number.
2. A backward flip of the body: Everyone saw Jeremy do a flip-flop in the air after he made the winning goal.
3. An electronic circuit or mechanical device that has two stable states and can be switched between the two: An early computer used a flip-flop as its memory storage unit.
During an interview, the flippant politician was heard to make a flip-flop on the issue of the city ordinance regarding unleashed dogs in the park. At the end of the interview, he tossed his head to flip his hair off his face.
2. A state of uncertainty about what should be done, usually following some important event, preceding the establishment of a new direction of action: The flux following the death of the king caused much concern among the politicians.
The frequent flux in the weather patterns often causes an ice floe to flow down the river towards the sea.
2. To fail completely; to founder: If Carl's new play flops one more time, he says he is going to find a new career.
When David flops down in the chair in front of his computer, he wants to check the FLOPS to make sure the calculations are performing properly.
Confusing Words: Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs; explained and demonstrated.
Confusing Words: Units, Groups A to Z.
Confusing Words: Vocabulary Quizzes Listed.
