Teaching Tips Archive

Archive:

Confusing Word Pairs

2010-03-15

There are many pairs of words whose meanings students often confuse. Have your students identify the different meanings of the two words in each of the following pairs.

• beside (next to) and besides (in addition to)
• biweekly (every other week) and semiweekly (twice a week)
• indolence (laziness) and insolence (being offensive)
• exalt (hold in high esteem) and exult (rejoice)
• rebut (argue against) and refute (disprove)
• omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing)

Have your students come up with other pairs of confusing words.

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