These words have overlapping meanings to do with certainty and security.
Insure:
Ensure:
In American English, insure is used instead of ensure. It is much less common to see this in British English (and probably to be avoided).
Flare and flair are homophones, and homophones are often confused. Flare tends to be used when the word should be flair. I think this is because we are more used to seeing and using flare (it has a wider range of uses).
Flair
Flare
*Before my time.
This is another post written because of suggestions I have received from readers of my blog (thank you).
My compliments to the chef.
Compliment:
Complement:
The meaning is the same when using the words as verbs. You compliment me on my dress. My shoes complement my dress.
Complimentary and complementary
The difference here is largely the same as above. However, complimentary has an additional meaning to expressing admiration or praise: it can also mean given free of charge.
Complementary means completing or forming a complement, or refers to the relationship between things that go well together.
Spelling
It may help as an aid to spelling to remember that a complement completes something and complete is spelt with an e (as well as the ‘e’ sound when pronounced).
This word does not mean what you probably think it might mean (shame on you).*
Bag-o’-wrinkle is a variant of the nautical term baggywrinkle.
Baggywrinkle: rope yarns (usually old) wound around parts of a ship’s rigging to prevent chafing.
From the pictures I have seen, it looks like a cross between a brush and a mop head.
*Don’t look up baggywrinkle on Urban Dictionary though.
Thank you to Aeryn Rudel for suggesting a new addition to my blog topics – weird hyphenated words!
‘Arsy-versy’ is an informal, primarily British English word. It means backwards, upside down, in reverse, confused or disordered.
I got things arsy-versy.
I probably wouldn’t use it in front of polite company.
Till is not a shortened form of until. Till has actually been in use longer than until.
They are often interchangeable; they both mean ‘up to’ (a point in time or event).
However, until is more likely to be used at the beginning of a sentence while till often appears before a noun. Until is also slightly more formal.
The contraction of until is ‘til and many sources will tell you not to use it. You can ignore them in informal contexts.
If I had a penny for every time I saw these mixed up, I would have a very heavy penny jar.
And I would get fed up of that face the cashiers at the bank pull when they see you are depositing lots of change.*
*I always sort it into the correct denominations and amounts, and put it into the little plastic bags. I don’t know why I still get the face.
‘Defiantly’ is not the only misspelling of ‘definitely’. However, it is the one that I read most often – spellcheckers don’t point it out with a helpful wiggly red line.
Definitely means without doubt or in a clear (definite) manner.
Defiantly means to do something in a way that shows resistance or rebellion.
As has previously been mentioned in the comment section of one of my posts, pore and pour are often confused. In my experience, this tends to manifest as writers using poured over when they actually mean pored over.
Therefore, I poured cream over the pudding and I pored over my latest manuscript.
Lightening is often used when the word should be lightning. It is a mistake that is easy to skim over when checking your own writing.
Lightning is a flash of light in the sky caused by electrical discharge. (It can also be used to mean fast and sudden.)
Lightening is the -ing form of lighten. Lighten has two meanings as a verb:
It is possible that some confusion arises because lighten can be used to mean to flash when referring to lightning (but I think this is rare).
Hannah McCall 