What are confusing words:

There are many words in English that can easily confuse you. The words that confuse a writer are called confusing words.

Example:

• I accepted her invitation for the party.
• Everyone was invited except Mr. Ram and his family.
  
  

Look at the below mentioned words. Accept

and except.

Accept means to take or receive (something offered). It means to acknowledge something.

Except means to exclude or to leave out.

These two words are often considered as confusing words. They are often mixed up and used incorrectly.

Their uses should be very easily remembered. If you find any acknowledgement involved, then it should be accept not except.

List of Confusing Words:

Below mentioned are few commonly used confusing words and their meanings:

 

WORD 1	MEANING	WORD 2	MEANING
Aloud	With loud voice	allowed	To give permission to
Affect	To influence	effect	To bring about, accomplish
Brake	To stop a vehicle	Break	To separate into parts or fragments
Breach	A violation of law, promise, trust	Breech	The lower part of anything
Coarse	Rough	Course	A direction or route taken or to be taken
Council	An assembly of persons convened for consultation or advice	Counsel	advice
Desert	An arid area with very little rainfall	Dessert	The final course of a meal i.e. cake, pie, icecream

 

 

Some Confusing Words and Homophones

Confusing words are those words that confuse a reader and make it difficult for him to use the word correctly. Homophones are words that sound alike but have different spelling and meaning. People often find homophones very confusing.

Example of Homophone:

Principal means head of a school

Mr. Goswami is the prinicipal of our school.

 

Principle: Fundamental or primary law of truth.              

 

John is a man of principles.

 

These two words (principal and principle) are words that sound the same but have different meaning and spelling. They are homophones. So it is easy to get confused. The first word principal that ends in “pal” has many meanings. It can mean a head of a school, an important person in business and the second word that ends in “ple” has only one meaning i.e. a fundamental rule or belief.

More Examples of Confusing Words

Below mentioned are some examples of commonly used confusing words.

Example 1:

Sight and site are words that get mixed up and people cannot differentiate them.

Word 1	Meaning	Word 2	Meaning
Sight	Ability to see	Site	location

Sentence 1: Let’s go for sightseeing.

 

Sentence 2: We’ll go to the site tomorrow.      

Example 2:

 

Word 1	Meaning	Word 2	Meaning
Stationary	Not moving	Stationery	Writing materials

 

 

Sentence 1:

The car remained stationary in the heavy traffic.

Sentence 2:

Save 20% on all office stationery!

 

 

 

Example 3:

Word 1	Meaning	Word 2	Meaning
Cereal	A breakfast food made of grains	Serial	A happening in a series.

 

 

Sentence 1:

I eat cereal in breakfast.

Sentence 2

I love to watch serials.