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October 27, 2025 · 6:00 am

Homophones: Wrangling Willful Words #writing

Words are the paints that we who write use to convey our ideas to the world. In English, which is a mash-up of several other languages, we have so many wonderful, wild words it is impossible to use them all in one book. Even the most comprehensive dictionaries can’t contain them all.

Commonly used words often fall out of fashion, while new words are being invented and dropping into use every day. I talked about this in my post, English – a Language Full of Bothersome Words #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy.

Let’s have a look at homophones – sound-alike and near-sound-alike words. Even experienced authors sometimes use the wrong word. As a reader, I notice the improper use of near homophones (words that sound closely alike). They stand out even when they’re spelled differently, BECAUSE they have different meanings.

We all know people who mispronounce words. I am certainly guilty of incorrect pronunciation whether conversing or reading aloud! The different meanings and proper enunciation of seldom-used words become blurred, and wrong usage becomes part of a writer’s everyday speech. We assume we know what that rarely used word means, and so we put it in the sentence.

And we do this more than once.

And unknowingly, we have created an embarrassing mistake. Fortunately, a good editor can easily guide us in the right direction.

New and beginning writers are often unaware that they habitually misuse common words until they begin to see the differences in how they are written.

A good example details the difference between two of the most commonly confused words: accept and except. Many people, even those blessed with a higher education, frequently mix these two words up in their casual conversation.

Accept (definition): to take or receive something; to receive with approval or favor.

I accept this present.
I accept your proposal.

Except (definition): not including, other than, leave out, exclude.

Present company excepted.
With the exclusion of ….

We accept that our employees work every day except Sunday.

English, being a mash-up language, has a long list of what I think of as cursed words to watch for in our writing.

Farther vs. Further: (Grammar Tips from a Thirty-Eight-Year-Old with an English Degree | The New Yorker by Reuven Perlman, posted February 25, 2021:

Farther describes literal distance; further describes abstract distance. Let’s look at some examples:

I’ve tried the whole “new city” thing, each time moving farther away from my hometown, but I can’t move away from . . . myself (if that makes sense?).
How is it possible that I’m further from accomplishing my goals now than I was five years ago? Maybe it’s time to change goals? [1]

When we use these words, we want to ensure we are using them correctly.

Ensure: make certain something happens.
Insure: arrange for compensation in the event of damage to (or loss of) property, or injury to (or the death of) someone, in exchange for regular advance payments to a company or government agency.
Assure: tell someone something positively or confidently to dispel any doubts they may have.

When I need to use unfamiliar words in my work, I look them up. I want to be sure that what I write means what I intend it to.

I was raised by parents who never stopped educating themselves and who loved words. They wanted us to be as well educated as possible, and reading was not only encouraged, it was required. However, Dad Loved Words. Big words, small words, short words, long words. My Dad loved them all.

He spun hilarious yarns about the ‘Kamaloozi Indians’, a non-existent tribe whose beloved Chief, Rolling Rock, had gone missing. The tribe was so distraught that they posted signs at every mountain pass reading “Watch for Rolling Rock.”

Everything in his toolbox had a name that was his own invention: Screwdrivers were ‘Skeejabbers.‘

Dad mangled words just because he loved the way they sounded. Sometimes he became so frustrated that he lost his words and resorted to creative cursing.

I confess, I’m just a product of my upbringing. I love obscure, weird words and regularly torment my adult children by using them in text messages.

But for the moment, let’s ignore the grandiose words and learn how to know when a word conveys the meaning you think it does, and when it does not. Using rare words correctly when they’re the only word that works is not pretentious.

However, ten-dollar words are to be avoided. If you pepper your narrative with highfalutin words, your readers might put the book down out of frustration, so go lightly.

Still, it never hurts to know the meaning and uses of words, even pretentious ones. Ten-dollar words #amwriting | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Below is an image containing a long list of words that are easily confused with sound-alike words. Feel free to right-click, copy, and save it as a reference. Using the wrong word completely changes the meaning of a sentence, so if you have doubts or if the word is unfamiliar, look it up. The internet is your friend!

Credits and Attributions:

[1] Farther vs. Further: (Grammar Tips from a Thirty-Eight-Year-Old with an English Degree | The New Yorker by Reuven Perlman, posted February 25, 2021 (accessed 25 Oct 2025).

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Tagged as homophones and near-homophones, ten-dollar words, writing

January 17, 2018 · 6:00 am

Ten-dollar words #amwriting

Words with few alternatives become problems for me, as in certain circumstances they can become repetitive. For that reason, I have the Oxford American Writers’ Thesaurus on my desk, and I refer to it regularly. I have found it saves time to use the hard copy book rather than the internet because I am not so easily distracted and led down rabbit trails.

But this leads me to the problem of using words that are jarring and obscure.

The important thing is to remember the audience you are writing for. If you are writing for a YA (Young Adult) audience, remember their reading level. They are just embarking on the reading journey, so don’t use words that my editor refers to as “ten-dollar words.”

Quote from Blogging.com: What is a Ten-Dollar Word? A ten-dollar word is a longer word that is used in place of a smaller and more well-known word. The origin of ten-dollar words dates back to the early 19th century when writers and speakers would use highfalutin words to inflate their appearance and seem smarter than the more average man. Words like these serve a very important purpose; they make you seem smarter than you actually are. One profession that’s very intelligent with their use of these words is the legal profession.

These words will stop the eye of the newer reader, who must set the book down, get the dictionary, and then look the word up. Or they will simply set the book down and not return to it.

The reason new readers often don’t like Literary Fiction is that they don’t understand many of the words and feel “talked down to.” Literary Fiction is work written for the experienced reader with a wide vocabulary. Children’s books and Middle Grade and Young Adult novels are the training grounds for readers, enabling them to gradually widen their vocabulary without their realizing it.

One of the worst places to get creative word-wise is with dialogue tags because it becomes telling rather than showing. Your punctuation and the physical action should convey the emotions. Some tags that are jarring and unnecessary are:

Ejaculated
Exclaimed
Moaned

I’ve mentioned before that I prefer simple attributions such as said, replied, and answered because they are not as likely to stop the reader’s eye.

Something authors must consider: People don’t snort, smirk, smile, or frown dialogue as it is physically impossible.

They can say it with a smile, but the smile is a facial expression and cannot speak.

This means that we add gestures and actions to the conversation to show the emotions, making it meaningful. Otherwise, stick with a simple dialogue tag, like said, or replied.

Conversely, don’t make the mistake of getting rid of attributions entirely because the verbal exchanges become confusing and the action takes over, making the dialogue fade into the background noise of foot shuffling and paper rattling.

Where you place the speech tags in a sentence is important. Dialogue tags, or attributions (said, replied) can come before the dialogue if you want the dialogue tag to be noticed. To make them less noticeable put them in the middle or at the end of sentences. In my own work, I want the dialogue and not the attribution to stand out.

However, when more than two people are involved in a conversation, I move the dialogue tags further to the front, so the reader isn’t left wondering who is speaking.

You can skip using dialogue tags altogether for a back-and-forth or two, but

not if there are more than two speakers in the scene, and
not for more than a few exchanges.

Authors must create a balanced narrative.

Readers want to be able to track who is saying what, and don’t like being confused. They like being challenged, but don’t want to have stop and look more than one or two words up. They don’t want to be jarred out of the book by ten-dollar words. And finally, they don’t want to be told a story. They want to see it happen.