What does each word mean? A pair is a set of two. If you pair two things, it means you put them together. Here is pair used in some example sentences: They bride and groom make a wonderful pair. I need to pack a spare pair of socks. Can you pair the knives with the forks? Look up pair in the Spellzone dictionary. If you pare something, it means you trim it. Here is pare used in some example sentences: He pared down the overgrown plant. This essay is too long – you need to pare down some words. Use a knife to pare away the skin from the pear. Look up pare in the Spellzone dictionary...
The English language is constantly evolving in creative ways and this has always been the case. This month we started a new blog feature on slang words and their plain English meanings. Our first post in this new series looks at Cockney rhyming slang. We returned to our Commonly Confused Words series with a very similar-sounding pair of words—allusion and illusion. Do you know when to use which word? Visit the blog for memory devices to help you tell them apart. For our Idioms article we looked at figurative expressions about fruit. We continued with the fruit theme in July’s Word for Wednesday posts. Did you know the word ...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit. The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’. The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. So far we’ve looked at the words banana, pineapple, and plum. Today’s word is pomegranate. A pomegranate is a type of fruit known for its juicy red pulp and many tiny ...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit. The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’. The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. So far we’ve looked at the word banana, and today’s word is pineapple. A pineapple is a large sweet fleshy tropical fruit with a tuft of stiff pointed leaves. What&rsqu...
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