It's easy to confuse words that are similar in sound, spelling, or meaning. But with a bit of review it's also easy to clear up such confusions.
On these pages you'll find simple definitions of more than 400 commonly confused words. Follow the links for examples, practice exercises, and usage notes in our expanded Glossary of Usage: Commonly Confused Words.
- Commonly Confused Words: A
- Commonly Confused Words: B-E
- Commonly Confused Words: F-I
- Commonly Confused Words: L-O
- Commonly Confused Words: P-S (below)
- Commonly Confused Words: T-Z
Update: Visit our Big Quiz on Commonly Confused Words.
P
- Pair, Pare, & Pear
The verb pare means to remove, reduce, or cut back. The noun pair means a couple. The noun pear refers to the fruit. - Palate, Palette, & Pallet
The noun palate refers to the roof of the mouth or the sense of taste. The noun palette refers to an artist's paint board or a range of colors. The noun pallet is a straw-filled mattress or a hard bed. - Passed & Past
Passed is both the past and past participle form of the verb pass. Past is a noun (meaning a previous time), an adjective (meaning ago), and a preposition (meaning beyond). - Patience & Patients
The noun patience refers to the ability to wait or endure hardship for a long time without becoming upset. The noun patients is the plural form of patient--someone who receives medical care. - Peace & Piece
The noun peace means contentment or the absence of war. A piece is a unit or a portion. You may "say your piece" or "hold your peace." - Peak, Peek, & Pique
As a noun, peak refers to a pointed end or the top of a hill or mountain. The verb peak means to reach a maximum, and the adjective peak means being at the maximum. As both a noun and a verb, peek refers to a glance or brief look. The noun pique refers to a sense of wounded pride. As a verb, pique means to excite, arouse, or irritate. - Perpetrate & Perpetuate
The verb perpetrate means to commit, carry out, or bring about. The verb perpetuate means to prolong the existence of or to cause to last indefinitely. - Perquisite & Prerequisite
A perquisite (sometimes informally shortened to perk) is a benefit (beyond pay) that is associated with a particular job. A prerequisite is something required as a prior condition of something else. - Persecute & Prosecute
To persecute is to oppress, harass, or bother. To prosecute is to enforce by legal action. - Personal & Personnel
The adjective personal (with the accent on the first syllable) means private or individual. The noun personnel (accent on the last syllable) refers to the people employed in an organization, business, or service. - Perspective & Prospective
The noun perspective refers to a view or outlook. The adjective prospective means likely or expected to happen or become. - Perverse & Perverted
The adjective perverse generally means stubborn, cranky, wrong-headed, or incorrect. Perverted means twisted, distorted, corrupt. - Plain & Plane
As an adjective, plain means simple, uncomplicated, common, or obvious. The noun plain refers to a flat, usually treeless stretch of land. As a noun, plane can refer to an airplane, a tool for smoothing wood, or a level surface. - Pole & Poll
The noun pole refers to a long staff (for example, "fiberglass pole" or "totem pole") or to either extremity of an axis of a sphere ("North Pole"). The noun poll most often refers to the casting of votes in an election or a survey of public opinion. Likewise, the verb poll means to record votes or to ask questions in a survey. - Pore & Pour
As a noun, pore means a small opening, especially in an animal or plant. The verb pore means to read or study carefully. To pour is to dispense a drink or other substance. - Precede & Proceed
Precede means to come before. Proceed means to go forward. - Premier & Premiere
As an adjective, premier means first in rank or importance. The noun premier refers to a prime minister, or the head of a state, province, or territory. The noun premiere refers to the first performance (of a play, for example). Premiere is similarly used as a verb, meaning to give a first public performance. - Prescribe & Proscribe
The verb prescribe means to establish, direct, or lay down as a rule. The verb proscribe means to ban, forbid, or condemn. - Principal & Principle
As a noun, principal commonly means administrator or sum of money. As an adjective, principal means most important. The noun principle means basic truth or rule. - Prodigy & Protégé
The noun prodigy refers to a highly talented young person or to a wondrous event. The noun protégé refers to someone whose training or career is advanced by an influential person. - Prostate & Prostrate
As both a noun and an adjective, prostate refers to a male gland. As an adjective, prostrate means lying flat on the ground or reduced to extreme weakness. The verb prostrate means to put oneself into a submissive position.
Q
- Quell & Quench
The verb quell means to suppress, pacify, or put down with force. The verb quench means to satisfy, extinguish, or cool down. - Quiet, Quit, & Quite
Quiet means silence. Quit means to leave. Quite means very or actually. - Quotation & Quote
In formal English, quotation is a noun, quote a verb. But see the usage notes.
R
- Rack & Wrack
As verbs, rack means to torture or cause great suffering, while wrack means to wreck or cause the ruin of something. The noun rack means a frame, an instrument of torture, or a state of intense anguish. The noun wrack means destruction or wreckage. Idiomatically, we may rack our brains, have a nerve-racking experience, and be racked with guilt, but what we're inevitably headed for is wrack and ruin. - Rain, Reign, & Rein
All three of these words can be used as both nouns and verbs. Rain refers to precipitation (falling water). Reign refers to a period or demonstration of sovereign power. Rein refers to restraint or the means by which power is exercised. - Raise & Rise
Raise is (usually) a transitive verb that means lift, heighten, or promote. Rise is an intransitive verb that means to get up or increase. In the U.S. and Canada, an increase in salary is called a raise. In the U.K., it's a rise. - Rapt & Wrapped
The adjective rapt means carried away or wholly absorbed. Wrapped is the past tense of the verb wrap, which means to cover, enclose, or bundle. - Rational & Rationale
The adjective rational means having or exercising the ability to reason. The noun rationale refers to an explanation or basic reason. - Ravage & Ravish
The verb ravage means to ruin, devastate, or destroy. The noun ravage (often in the plural) means grievous damage or destruction. The verb ravish means to rape, carry away by force, or overwhelm with emotion. - Recourse & Resource
Recourse is a person or thing that one turns or applies to for help. Resource is a supply that can be drawn on when needed. - Regretful & Regrettable
The adjective regretful refers to people and means full of regret. Regrettable applies to incidents or situations and means causing or deserving regret. - Reluctant & Reticent
The adjective reluctant means to feel or show hesitation, aversion, or unwillingness. The adjective reticent means inclined to be silent or restrained in expression or appearance. - Respectively & Respectfully
Respectfully means with respect. Respectively means one by one in the order designated or mentioned. - Restive & Restless
The adjective restive means difficult to control or impatient in the face of restraint or authority. The adjective restless means unable to rest, relax, or remain still. Unlike restive, restless is not associated with external restraint. - Review & Revue
The noun revue refers to a musical or theatrical production. As both a noun and a verb, review has the sense of inspecting, surveying, or critically evaluating. - Riffle & Rifle
The verb riffle (pronounced with a short i) means to shuffle (playing cards) or to flick or leaf through something (such as the pages of a book or magazine). The verb rifle means to rob, ransack, or search with the intention of stealing. - Role & Roll
A role is a character or part played by a performer. Roll has many senses, including a portion of bread and a list of names of persons belonging to a group.
S
- Sensual & Sensuous
The adjective sensual means affecting or gratifying the physical senses. Sensuous means pleasing to the senses, especially those involved in aesthetic pleasure, as of art or music. But as explained in the usage notes, this distinction is often overlooked. - Serve & Service
In general practice, people are served, things are serviced. - Set & Sit
The transitive verb set means to put or to place; it takes a direct object, and its principal forms are set, set, and set. The intransitive verb sit means to be seated; it does not take a direct object, and its principal forms are sit, sat, and sat. - Shall & Will
In contemporary American English, the auxiliary verb shall is rarely used. In British English, shall and will are often used interchangeably with no difference of meaning in most circumstances. Internationally, will is now the standard choice for expressing future plans and expectations. However, in first-person questions shall is often used to express politeness, and in legal statements, shall is used with a third-person subject for stating requirements. See the usage notes. - Shear & Sheer
The verb shear means to cut or clip. As a noun, shear refers to the act, process, or fact of cutting or clipping. The adjective sheer means fine, transparent, or complete. As an adverb, sheer means completely or altogether. - Should & Would
Use should to express an obligation. Use would to express a customary action. - Simple & Simplistic
The adjective simple means plain, ordinary, uncomplicated. The adjective simplistic is a pejorative word meaning overly simplified--characterized by extreme and often misleading simplicity. - Sometime, Some time, & Sometimes
Sometime means at an indefinite or unstated time in the future. Some time means a period of time. Sometimes means occasionally, now and then. - Stanch & Staunch
The verb stanch means to check or stop the flow of something. The adjective staunch means strong, substantial, or steadfast. Although the two words are sometimes used interchangeably, stanch is more common than staunch as the spelling of the verb, and staunch is more common than stanch as the spelling of the adjective. - Stationary & Stationery
The adjective stationary means remaining in one place. The noun stationery means writing materials. Tip: associate the er in stationery with the er in letter and paper. - Statue & Statute
A statue is a carved or molded figure. A statute is a rule or law. - Steal & Steel
The verb steal means to take someone else's property without right or permission. Steal can also mean to move secretly. As both a noun and an adjective, steel refers to a hard alloy of iron and carbon. Used figuratively, steel means hard, strong, and tough. As a verb, steel means to strengthen. - Suit, Suite, & Sweet
As a noun, suit (pronounced "sewt") means a costume, a set of garments, a claim in court, or a set of playing cards bearing the same mark. The noun suite (pronounced "sweet") means a musical composition, a staff of attendants, or a set of things (such as pieces of furniture) that form a unit. (In parts of Canada, suite is also used as a synonym for apartment or flat.) The adjective sweet means pleasing to the mind or senses, especially the sense of taste.
