These verbs all describe ways of opposing people and their behavior, especially beliefs, arguments, and claims, but they have distinct meanings. Rebuff is perhaps the more interesting of these four words—the only one that cannot mean “argue against.” Rebuff means to resist a person’s aggressive behavior—and only the person who is being attacked, or bothered, can rebuff; […]

These words both refer to large groups of people, in different ways. Populous is an adjective and populace, a noun. Populous means “having a large population”—large for the area. For example, Siberia may have several million residents but it is not populous, because it is a large area. Hong Kong, however, is very populous! Populous and […]

Both of these words refer to the idea of coming first, but in different ways. The adjective premier means the first, highest status, most important, or best: Jimi Hendrix was the premier guitar player of his time. As a noun, premier can mean “prime minister” for certain nations. Premiere can be an adjective or verb referring to […]

These two nouns sound exactly the same and have similar meaning, but they differ grammatically. Precedents are events that precede (come before) other similar, later, events—especially when the earlier events (the precedents) determine how the later events are viewed. This word is often used for legal decisions, since later legal decisions are expected to be […]

Pomace refers to pulp—the mashed remains of fruit, seeds, or other plant-stuff, after the juice or oil has been squeezed out. This word is not commonly used but it may appear in recipes for or descriptions of juice, cocktails, oils, baked goods, and some other foods: After mashing the oranges and removing the juice, put […]