Vocabulary

Cite/Site/Sight• Cite – to quote, summon, commend or call.

Cite the author in an endnote; • Site – location, area, computer website, or to

place something in an area You visit a Web site or the site of the crime.

• Sight – the act of seeing, a view, a glimpse/ observation, to look in a direction.

You sight your beloved running toward you in slow motion on the beach (a sight for sore eyes!).

Complement/Compliment

• compliment: nice things said about someone – "She paid me the compliment of admiring the way I shined my

shoes.” • Complement- matching or completing.

– Alice’s love for entertaining and Mike’s love for washing dishes complement each other.

– the full number of something needed to make it complete: “My computer has a full complement of video-editing programs.” If it is preceded by “full” the word you want is almost certainly “complement.” 

• Remember, if you’re not making nice to someone, the word is “complement.”

Conscience/Conscious

• Conscience – inner sense of right and wrong.– Your conscience makes you feel guilty when you

do bad things. • Conscious – aware, having mental faculties,

known. – If you are awake, you are conscious. – Although it is possible to speak of your “conscious

mind,” you can’t use “conscious” all by itself to mean “consciousness.”

Council/Counsel

• Council– an assembly, a body of people– I checked with the city council.

• Counsel– advice, to give advice– I could counsel you not to speak to him anymore.

Continually/Continuously

• Continually means "repeated again and again." – I was continually interrupted by the telephone.

• Continuously means "uninterrupted." – It rained continuously for forty-eight hours.

Coarse/Course

• Coarse is always an adjective meaning “rough, crude.”– Don’t use that coarse language in here!

• Course – N. or v. many meanings! Path, track, procedure, mode of conduct, to hunt or chase, etc. ALSO used in many idioms – Of course, we do charge a fee for that.

Disburse/Disperse

• Disburse – to distribute, give out– You disburse money by taking it out of your purse

(French “bourse”) and distributing it.

• Disperse – scatter, drive off, dispell– If you refuse to hand out any money, the eager

mob of beggars before you may disperse.

Eligible/Illegible

• Eligible – available, qualified, fit or proper– He was quite the eligible bachelor.

• Illegible not readable, impossible to read, bad handwriting. – I cannot take this paper, your writing is illegible!

Eminent/Imminent

• Eminent - prominent, famous, most important. – The government exercises eminent domain.

• Imminent – threatening, facing immediate disaster. From Latin minere, meaning “to project or overhang.” – The cave in was imminent, as was the movie

premiere.

Ensure/Insure• Ensure- to secure or guarantee: to make sure or

certain: measures to ensure the success of an undertaking. to make secure or safe, as from harm– This letter will ensure you a hearing.

• Insure – to guarantee against loss or harm, to secure indemnity to or on, in case of loss, damage, or death, to issue or procure an insurance policy on or for. – Check with your agent, they can probably insure you for

less.