Adduce and Deduce are both verbs that come from the same stem, -duce, meaning “to lead,” which is seen in reduce, induce, and other words. The prefixes, ad- (“to”) and de- (“from”) suggest the meanings “lead to” (adduce) and “lead from” (deduce)— and these meanings are accurate, if you interpret them in a very abstract […]

Aherence and Adherents, two closely related nouns, are pronounced in exactly the same way—at least for the plural form of adherent(s), as shown above. Both words come from the verb adhere, which means “to stick to something”; the stem -here also appears in coherent, inherent, and other words. Adherents are indeed people who “stick to” […]

Adverse and Averse are two adjectives that have different meanings, though they are closely related. Adverse can describe any negative situation; however, averse describes a person who wishes to avoid something. Adverse can only be used to describe situations and forces, not people or ideas, for example: Correct: Does this medication have any adverse effects?Correct: The adverse […]

The spellings Adviser and Advisor are both fully acceptable, though your spellchecker may say otherwise. Most spellcheckers do not tolerate multiple spellings, but feel free to ignore them in this case. It may help to know that there are reasons for these two spellings. One reason is that, in English, we can change almost any […]