tricky words I always see misspelled in fics: a guide
- Viscous/vicious – Viscous is generally used to describe the consistency of blood or other thick liquids. Vicious is used to describe something or someone who is violent.
- Piqued/Peaked/Peeked – To pique someone’s interest is to catch or tease their attention. When something peaks, it reaches its total height or intensity. To peek (at) something is to look briefly, or glance.
- Discrete/Discreet – this is a tough one. Discrete means to be separate, or distinct, i.e., two discrete theories. Conversely, when someone is discreet, they are being secretive or cautious to avoid attention.
- Segue/Segway – one is a transition between things, the other is a thing you can ride at the park and definitely fall off of.
- Conscious/Conscience/Conscientious – to be conscious is to be awake, i.e., not unconscious, or to be aware of something. Your conscience is the little voice in your head telling you not to eat the entire pint of ice cream. Finally, to be conscientious is to be good, to do things thoroughly, to be ruled by an inner moral code.
Hope this helped! Please add more if you think of them!
Counsel/Council - counsel is advice, the advice giver, or the verb form of giving said advice. Council is the group of people who come together to discuss and/or make decisions.
Desert/Desert/Dessert - desert is a barren landscape where little precipitation occurs. desert - abandon (a person, cause, or organization) in a way considered disloyal or treacherous. dessert - a usually sweet course or dish (as of pastry or ice cream) usually served at the end of a meal.
OH MY TIME IS HERE! I HAVE MADE A POST I KEEP FOR THIS EXACTLY
Taunt/Taut - Taunt is a jeer or provocation, taut means to be pulled tight, or not slack
Weary/Wary - weary means tired and wary means cautious
Rogue/Rouge - rogue is a person who has unaffiliated themselves from what they were before (is the general understanding); a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way - rouge is red
Wonton/Wanton - a wonton is a dumpling, wanton is (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked and/or sexually unrestrained
Haphazard/Halfhazard - haphazard means to have a lack of plan, order, or direction - the other isn’t a word
Corporal/Corporeal - corporal is a lack of plan, order, or direction and corporeal is to have a physical existence: to be tangible: of a person’s body
Peck/Pec - the first is a kiss (peck) and the second is the shortened version of pectoral (pec)
Virile/Viral - to be virile is to have strength, energy, and a strong sex drive (typically said about men) and then this last year (2020) has personally taught us, is how viral a plague can really be, so of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses
Vulnerable/Venerable - vulnerable means being susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm, and if a person is venerable they’re accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character (or if you’re religious, holy)
Dyed is something that is colored, and died is deceased
Chalk (it up to something) ; chock (-full of something); choked (to cutoff air).
to affect is the action, the effect is the end result
If something doesn’t bother you then you weren’t fazed by it. If you are between two states of being that is a phase.
Please. For the love of all things holy. I beg you.
Loose: the opposite of tight
Lose: to misplace something or the opposite of win.
I BEG YOU.
breath is the noun, breathe is the verb
Ah perfect. I needed these words for an alien character to get them all wrong when writing to a human.
Ohh! I have some!
Notching is when you make a notch in something, while nocking is the act of slotting an arrow into a bowstring.
Reign is a period of rule by a person of royalty or authority, and rein is a strap used to control or guide an animal. Likewise, it’s the same for phrases like “ reigning champion” and “reined in”.
A cord is usually something like a thin rope or a wire, and a chord is something that you play on the guitar.
Reliving yourself means you’re remembering a part of your past; relieving yourself means you’re going to the bathroom
When something is diffused it means it’s spread out, like what happens when you add dye to water. When something is defused it means the situation is made safer or less tense, like removing a fuse from a bomb.
Sweetie: A term of endearment or affection (usually understood to be a shortened form of “sweetheart” or “my sweet”), or occasionally a word used with very small children for candy.
Sweaty: Covered in perspiration.
