Commonly confused words - Graduate Writing Center

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Commonly Confused Words


Here’s some good council for you: one of the premiere tenants of polished writing is to be conscience of commonly confused words.

It’s not just an ascetic consideration: ignoring this principal can negatively effect readers’ perceptions of your document, even to the point that they might become disinterested—maybe even give it a wide birth.

By contrast, while accurate diction won’t insure that readers will agree with you, if you hone in on the precise terms you want, then, for all intensive purposes, your writing will be more likely to illicit a positive reaction from readers.

Notice anything a little . . . off there?

English is full of homophones—words that sound alike but mean different things—and other words and expressions that are a hair's breadth (not hare's breath) from each other in sound and spelling—so much so that they can be hard to tell apart.

Often, these types of errors arise from hearing or mishearing a word or expression and not seeing it in print, with the result that we're sometimes not even aware that the correct form exists!

The best way to avoid these kinds of slips is to study up on commonly confused words and get a sense of the vocabulary available to you. The links below offer a good start; here are some other tips:

  • Spellcheck can't help: commonly confused words are all real words! The grammar checker sometimes gets things right, but it can't replace your precious brain—or anyone else's; getting human feedback from a GWC coach or other knowledgeable reader is invaluable in this regard.
     
  • If you notice an error in diction, use your word processor's Find function to check for other spots where the same error might have crept in.
     
  • The dictionary isn't training wheels: it's more the actual wheels, a fundamental component of getting your text where it needs to go. Keep one handy and consult it often. The autocomplete feature of electronic dictionaries can reveal similar words you didn't know existed—but then, so can browsing one of those old two-ton tomes.

There was something off there

The opening paragraphs did indeed contain many errors in usage. The following list points out the errors, with the correct word or phrase following the colon:

  • Council: counsel
  • Premiere: premier
  • Tenants: tenets
  • Conscience: conscious
  • Ascetic: aesthetic
  • Principal: principle
  • Effect: affect
  • Disinterested: uninterested
  • Birth: berth
  • Insure: ensure
  • Hone: home
  • For all intensive purposes: for all intents and purposes
  • Illicit: elicit

Ultimately, while these kinds of substitutions might not completely obscure your meaning, they can cause readers to question your knowledge and attention to detail more broadly, whether fairly or unfairly—so it's best to nail down your usage and give them no such opportunity.

More Information on Commonly Confused Words

A–Z content heading

Writing Topics A–Z


This index links to the most relevant page for each item. Please email us at writingcenter@nps.edu if we're missing something!

A–Z content menu

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

A

abbreviations

abstracts

academic writing

acronyms

active voice

adjectives, compound

advisor, selecting and working with

AI

apostrophes

appointment with GWC coaches, how to schedule

argument

article usage

artificial intelligence

assignments, understanding them

audience

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B

body paragraphs

booking an appointment with a GWC coach

brackets, square

brainstorming

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C

capitalization

citations

charts

ChatGPT

citation software

citation styles

clauses

clarity

clustering

coaching, about

coaching, how to schedule

colons

comma splices

commas, FANBOYS

commas, introductory

commas, list

commas, nonessential / nonrestrictive information

commas, Oxford

commas, serial

common knowledge

commonly confused words

compare-and-contrast papers

compound adjectives / modifiers

concision

conclusions

conference presentations

conjunctive adverbs

coordinating conjunctions

copyright and fair use

critical thinking

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D

dangling modifiers

dashes

dependent clauses

dependent marker words

display equations

distance learning

double submission of coursework

drafting

Dudley Knox Library

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E

editing your own work

editing: outside editors

em dash

en dash

equations

exclamation points

executive summary

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F

FANBOYS

FAQs

figures

first person, use of in academic writing

footnotes

fragments

free-writing

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G

generative artificial intelligence (AI)

gerunds

grammar

graphics

graphs

group writing

GWC appointment, how to schedule

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H

homophones

Honor Code, NPS

human subjects research

hyphens

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I

ibid.

incomplete sentences

independent clauses

Institutional Review Board

interviews, conducting

introductions

IRB

iThenticate

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J

Joining the Academic Conversation

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L

LaTeX

library liaisons

lists, syntax of

literature reviews

logic and analysis

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M

M dash

making a GWC appointment

mathematics

memos

methodology

modifiers, compound

modifiers, misplaced

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N

N dash

nominalizations

note-taking

noun clusters

numbers

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O

organization

outlining

Oxford comma

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P

paragraph development

parallelism

paraphrasing

parentheses

parts of speech

passive voice

periods

persuasion

phrases vs. clauses

plagiarism, how to avoid

plagiarism-detection software

plain language

polishing

prepositional phrases

prepositions

pronouns, clarity with

pronouns, grammar of

proofreading

publishing

punctuation

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Q

questionnaires, administering

questions

quotation marks

quoting

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R

Reading with Intent I

Reading with Intent II

redundancies

reference software

reflection papers

research

research guides, discipline-specific

research questions

restrictive vs. nonrestrictive information

reusing papers

reverse outlining

revision

roadmaps

run-on sentences

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S

scheduling a GWC appointment

self-citing

semicolons

sentence fragments

serial comma

signal phrases

significance

so what?

source blending

sources, engaging with / critiquing

sources, evaluating the reliability of

sources, citing

spelling

standard essay structure

STEM / technical writing

Strategic Reading I

Strategic Reading II

style

subject–verb agreement

subjects, grammatical

subordinating conjunctions

summarizing

surveys, administering

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T

tables

teams, writing in

technical writing

tense

that vs. which

thesis advisor, selecting and working with

thesis process overview

Thesis Processing Office (TPO)

thesis proposals: common elements

thesis statements

thesis writing

this, that, these, those

tone, professional

topic sentences

transitions

types of papers

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U

United States or U.S.?

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V

verbs and verb tense

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W

which vs. that

why write?

writer’s block

writing in groups / teams

writing process

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Z

Zotero

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