source: literaryvein-words on tumblr
adverse, averse
Averse - reluctant or disinclined (think of aversion)
Adverse - hostile and antagonistic (think of adversary)
allay, alleviate, assuage, relieve
Alleviate - should suggest giving temporary relief without removing the underlying cause of a problem. It is close in meaning to ease, a fact obviously unknown to the writer of this sentence: "It will ease the transit squeeze, but will not alleviate it" (Chicago Tribune).
Allay and assuage - both mean to put to rest or to pacify and are most often applied to fears
Relieve - the more general term and covers all these meanings
ambiguous, equivocal
Both mean vague and open to more than one interpretation.
But whereas an ambiguous statement may be vague by accident or by intent,
an equivocal one is calculatedly unclear.
amid, among
Among - applies to things that can be separated and counted, amid to things that cannot.
Rescuers might search among survivors but amid wreckage.
amoral, immoral
Amoral - describes matters in which questions of morality do not arise or are disregarded;
immoral - applies to things that are evil.
antecedence, antecedents
Antecedence - means precedence;
antecedents - ancestors or other things that have gone before.
antennae, antennas
Either is correct as the plural of antenna,
but generally antennae - preferred for living organisms ("a beetle's antennae")
and antennas - for manmade objects ("radio antennas made possible the discovery of pulsars").
anybody, anyone, anything, anyway, anywhere
Anything and anywhere - always one word.
The others are one word except when the emphasis is on the second element (e.g., "He received three job offers, but any one would have suited him").
Anybody and anyone - singular and should be followed by singular pronouns and verbs.
A common fault is seen here:
"Anyone can relax, so long as they don't care whether they or anyone else ever actually gets anything done" (Observer).
So long as they gets anything done?
The problem, clearly, is that a plural pronoun (they) is being attached to a singular verb (gets).
Such constructions may in fact be fully defensible, at least some of the time, though you should at least know why you are breaking a rule when you break it.
avenge, revenge
Generally, avenge - indicates the settling of a score or the redressing of an injustice. It is more dispassionate than
revenge - indicates retaliation taken largely for the sake of personal satisfaction.
a while, awhile
To write "for awhile" is wrong because the idea of for is implicit in awhile.
Write either: "I will stay here for a while" (two words) or "I will stay here awhile" (one word).
awoke, awaked, awakened
Two common problems are worth noting:
Awoken, though much used, is generally considered not standard. Thus this sentence from an Agatha Christie novel (cited by Partridge) is wrong: "I was awoken by that rather flashy young woman." Make it awakened.
As a past participle, awaked is preferable to awoke. Thus, "He had awaked at midnight" and not "He had awoke at midnight." But if ever in doubt about the past tense, you will never be wrong if you use awakened.
