Commonly confused words

jaguar vs cheetah

Jaguars are heavy, powerfully built cats of Central and South America, marked with rosettes — rings with a spo...

Jehovah vs Yahweh

Two renderings of the same Hebrew name for God, written in the Bible as four consonants — YHWH, the Tetragramm...

judicial vs judicious

Judicial relates to courts, judges and the administration of justice — judicial review, the judicial branch. J...

Jupiter vs Zeus

The same god under two names. Zeus is the Greek king of the gods; Jupiter is his Roman counterpart, and the Ro...

kinetic energy vs potential energy

Kinetic energy is the energy of motion — anything moving has it. Potential energy is stored energy held by pos...

know vs no

<em>Know</em> is a verb meaning to have information or be familiar with something: 'I know the answer.' <em>No...

labrador vs retriever

Retriever is a group of breeds developed to fetch shot game. The Labrador Retriever is one of them — the most...

laid vs lay

Laid is the past tense of lay, which means to put something down and always takes an object — "she laid the fo...

laid vs lain

Laid comes from lay, a verb that needs an object — you lay something down: "she laid the book on the table." L...

landscape vs portrait

Landscape orientation is wider than it is tall — the shape of a widescreen film or a horizontal photo. Portrai...

larceny vs robbery

Larceny is taking property unlawfully without force — a bicycle taken from a rack. Robbery is taking property...

laryngitis vs bronchitis

Both are inflammation of part of the airway, but at different depths. Laryngitis affects the larynx — the voic...

larynx vs trachea

The larynx is the voice box — it sits at the top of the airway and holds the vocal cords. The trachea is the w...

later vs latter

Later means at a subsequent time — see you later. Latter means the second of two things already mentioned: "te...

lay vs lie

"Lay" means to put or set something down and needs an object — you lay something ("lay the book down"). "Lie"...

laying vs lying

You are laying something — the verb needs an object: <em>She was laying the tiles when the rain started.</em>...

lead vs led

The past tense of lead is led — three letters, no a: "He led the negotiations last year." Lead is only the pre...

least vs less

Less compares two things; least marks the very bottom of three or more. "Tuesday was less busy than Monday" se...

legislation vs legislature

Legislation is the law — the written rules that get passed. A legislature is the assembly of people who pass t...

lend vs loan

Lend is the verb everyone accepts: "Could you lend me your ladder?" Loan is the noun: "He took out a loan to b...

liable vs libel

Liable means legally responsible for something, or likely to do it. Libel is defamation in permanent form — pu...

licence vs license

In British English, licence is the noun and license is the verb: "You need a licence to fish here" but "the co...

lightning vs lightening

Lightning, with no e in the middle, is the electrical flash in a storm. Lightening, with the e, is the present...

literal vs literate

Literal means taking words in their exact, non-figurative sense — a literal translation. Literate means able t...