1000 Commonly Confused Words Pdf Download
Roxann Monier
Some words look the same, while others sound the same. Knowing the difference between these similar words can be very tricky. In this handout we have provided some of the most commonly confused word pairs, with definitions for each and sentences showing them in context. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it should hopefully help you begin to recognize the particular differences between different words.
Commonly confused words appear in many locations, not just at work or at school. Be on the lookout for misused words wherever you find yourself throughout the day. Make a mental note of the error and remember its correction for your own pieces of writing.
I just had a discussion about this and after looking up what those words really mean I was confused. My thought (all these long years) is that 2 is a couple, a few is 3 and several meant 7 or more (it seemed to me the first 4 letters seve gave it away). Everything else was a specific number.
This is a list of English words that are thought to be commonly misused. It is meant to include only words whose misuse is deprecated by most usage writers, editors, and professional grammarians defining the norms of Standard English. It is possible that some of the meanings marked non-standard may pass into Standard English in the future, but at this time all of the following non-standard phrases are likely to be marked as incorrect by English teachers or changed by editors if used in a work submitted for publication, where adherence to the conventions of Standard English is normally expected. Some of the examples are homonyms or pairs of similarly spelled words that are often confused.
If you want to know more about commonly confused words, definitions, and differences between US and UK spellings, make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.
Entrepreneur consistently appears on lists of the most commonly misspelled business words. The problem? It's a French word, so its spelling doesn't fit standard English rules. Most people drop the "r" in the "pre" or transpose it, so it's "perneur." Your best bet is just to memorize the spelling.
Have you ever gotten confused between effect and affect? Are there any other words that mean different but are spelled or pronounced similarly? Write to us or mention in the comments below about how you deal with such honest language err.
INTIMATE PARTNER HOMICIDE AND PREGNANCY
Several studies in the last decade have examined the role of homicide in maternal mortality. Maternal mortality is defined as death during pregnancy or one year from end of pregnancy that is related to or caused by complications from the pregnancy. It excludes death from "accidental or incidental causes." Various issues with regard to data collection have been addressed by recent research. Many pregnancies ending in homicide go undetected: the victim's condition of pregnancy is not always recorded on the death certificate (only seventeen states currently request pregnancy status on death certificates), and the medical examiner may not detect the condition. Data collection on mortality among pregnant women has also been enhanced to capture more completely causes of death in this population. Studies in Maryland, North Carolina, New York, and Illinois have found that "homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant or recently pregnant women" (Frye 2001).For example, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association explores the causes of death of women who died while pregnant or within a year of pregnancy (Horon and Cheng 2001). The study, "Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy Associated Mortality, Maryland 1993-1998" found that 20.2 percent of the deceased pregnant women examined were victims of homicide. As a baseline comparison, the study found the homicide rate among not-pregnant women aged fourteen to forty-four was 11.2 percent of the recorded deaths (Ibid.). In addition, a study in New York City that examined maternal deaths due to injury found that homicides made up 25 percent of the deaths among pregnant and recently pregnant women (Frye 2001).In a JAMA editorial on this subject, Frye emphasizes that whether a women is pregnant or not, homicide is a leading killer of women of child-bearing age (See statistics at beginning of the chapter). "While pregnancy as an independent risk factor for lethal intimate partner violence is currently under investigation, thus far, research indicates that much of the violence that women experience during pregnancy is perpetrated by intimate partners, and that for some, partner violence begins during pregnancy" (Ibid.).The strong correlation between homicide as a leading killer of women of child-bearing age, the rates of homicide among pregnant and recently pregnant women, and the rates of homicides perpetrated by intimate partners, indicates that those women who are pregnant or have recently reached the end of pregnancy may be at a higher risk for partner violence, which at times will be lethal. Many of the studies suggest that certain population subgroups are at increased risk. All of the studies indicate that efforts to prevent pregnancy-associated mortality should become a focal point among healthcare providers and domestic violence advocates who serve this population (Ibid.).WELL-DOCUMENTED MEDICAL RECORDSHELP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS IN COURT
A National Institute of Justice study funded by the Violence Against Women Office has determined that healthcare providers can greatly assist victims of domestic violence in court proceedings by improving documentation of medical records. In Documenting Domestic Violence: How Health Care Providers Can Help Victims, researchers Isaac and Enos (September 2001), state that "the importance of documenting abuse is recognized" but "many medical records contain shortcomings that prevent their admissibility as evidence in court and other legal proceedings." There are many issues cited that limit the usefulness of medical records in court: the difficulty of obtaining the records, incomplete records, inaccurate records, and illegible records. Furthermore, healthcare providers are reluctant to testify in court, and while they are well-meaning, they are often confused "about whether and how to record information useful in legal proceedings." Many states allow parts of medical records relating to diagnosis and treatment to be admitted without the testimony of the physician, making it all the more important that documentation be comprehensive, specific, and legible.The study found that healthcare providers can improve the documentation of factual information in several ways and made the following recommendations (Ibid.):
- Take photographs of the injuries known or believed to have been caused by domestic violence.
- Write clearly.
- Set off the patient's words in quotation marks and use such phrases as "patient states" to indicate the information recorded reflected the patient's words. Describe the offender and the event in the words of the patient, i.e., the patient said, "My husband kicked me in the stomach."
- Avoid such legalistic phrases as "patient claims" or "patient alleges" that cast doubt about the truth of the statements. Avoid terms such as "alleged perpetrator." If the healthcare providers observations differ from the patient's account of the victimization, state the reason for the difference.
- Do not summarize a patient's report in conclusive terms that lack the supporting factual information, i.e., "the patient is a battered woman" because it will render the report inadmissible. In the same theme, do not place the term "domestic violence" in the diagnosis section of the medical record, because it does not convey factual information and is not medical terminology.
- Describe the patient's demeanor, whether she is crying, shaking, angry, calm, laughing, or sad, even if it belies the evidence of abuse.
- Record the time of day of the examination and indicate whenever possible how much time has passed since the abuse.
The National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women with support from the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a Web-based resource to provide concrete guidance to communities to develop more effective programs to address violence against women. Designed in a friendly and accessible format by domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking experts, the Toolkit offers recommendations for strengthening prevention efforts in communities and for improving services to crime victims. Each of the Toolkit chapters focuses on a specific audience, a specific environment or an aspect of the criminal justice system, community services, and allied professionals who support victims. On each subject, the Toolkit provides a checklist of actions to be taken, followed by a detailed explanation of purpose, guidance on how to accomplish recommended tasks and a list of national resources available for further inquiry. For further information contact Violence Against Women Office's Web site at
2. Possible confusion caused by three words (Major focus / Major association and major allele): Because there is no explanation of the major allele in the text, it may cause readers to be confused with these two places in the text when trying to interpret the meaning of major allele: major locus (line 149)/ the major association with disease phenotypes (line 183).