The word handsome is easily understood and commonly used; It means “good-looking,” with high-class and masculine associations—i.e. typically a man who is dressed and groomed like a “gentleman” (neat, clean, wearing non-casual clothing). Handsome can also be used to describe a woman, sometimes, but still carries a masculine connotation, versus “pretty,” which has feminine connotations. A handsome […]

Funeral is a noun, and funereal is an adjective—they are the same word in different forms (different parts of speech). A funeral is the ceremony we have after a person has died, which ends with the burial or cremation (burning). The funeral is not the act of burying or cremating the body, but rather the whole ritual, which […]

Former means “the first of two things” and latter means “the second of two things,” however people tend to use them a bit more loosely: Alice, Bob, and Grace are joining us for dinner. The former (Alice) is coming early and the latter two (Bob and Grace) are coming later. Also, former has a second meaning, “earlier or past” while […]

Of these two words, gaffe is much more common and is often misspelled as gaff, which is an uncommon word. Gaffe, a noun, is “a mistake, especially a clumsy social or diplomatic action.” Gaffe can be used to describe almost any kind of mistake; however, it is most often used for mistakes of social or diplomatic behavior, […]

These are the same word, but gauntlet is the much more common spelling. Gantlet may be seen as an error by many people, although it is nothing more than a variation, albeit much less commonly used. Gauntlet has two meanings, each a part of a popular English saying. The most common meaning comes from the idiom to run […]