Incite means “to cause or provoke a dangerous or violent feeling or action,” such as to incite a riot, incite an argument, or incite fear; one can also incite a person:The politician incited his followers to violence.Insight contains the word sight and means “seeing into”—i.e. having a true perception, a deep understanding, or a very […]

Insidious means “harmful in a sneaky way.”  Invidious means (1) “offensive” or (2) “resentful.”Insidious can describe anything harmful but slow-moving or hidden—something bad that sneaks up on you—like many long-term health problems and social issues: Addiction can be insidious; it destroys a person slowly.Racism is insidious; it can spread beneath the surface of a society for […]

These two terms have different meanings but can be used in some similar ways, because they are both adjective phrases.  Alright is an adjective, meaning “okay”: Alright, let’s order pizza!I feel alright today. All right, in contrast, is simply a combination of all and right (i.e., correct) and should only be used to mean that […]

These two adjectives come from the same root, and insoluble has one meaning which is the same as that of insolvable, but also another more fundamental meaning.Both insoluble and insolvable can mean “not solvable,” as in a problem, mystery, or riddle: The tricky professor gave his students insoluble/insolvable physics problems.Poverty may be an insoluble/insolvable problem, […]

These words are unrelated, and both have very narrow usages, especially braze, which is very rare.Braise is a French word—both a noun and a verb in English—that refers to cooking something in a little bit of fat and liquid, at a temperature lower than boiling: I’m going to braise asparagus with butter and garlic for […]