These two adjectives are closely related.  Distinct means “clearly different, distinguishable” (in fact, note that distinguish has the same root as distinct)—not simply different, but able to be told apart. There are many distinct meanings to the word play in English.  Distinctive means “uniquely different” or “different in a way which uniquely identifies itself”: His […]

Although these two words seem the same, they are not.  Unsatisfied means “not satisfied” or “not entirely fulfilled,” while dissatisfied means “anti-satisfied,” i.e., far from satisfied, unhappy: Although I am impressed with the work so far, I am still unsatisfied. This means that I have a positive feeling about the work, but I still want […]

Everyday is an adjective, while every day is a noun phrase which acts as an adverbial; it modifies verb phrases: This is not an everyday event; they visit rarely.I do not eat lunch every day. Also, everyday can mean “normal” or “usual”: That was not an everyday performance; it was amazing. Every day, however, just […]

Everyone is a pronoun, and every one is a noun phrase.  Everyone means “all people”—or at least all of the people who are relevant to the discussion: Please tell everyone that the meeting will begin late. Everyone cannot be used for non-people, not even animals, unless you regard animals as people (which is nice, but […]

These two words have almost the same meaning: “not organized, chaotic.” However, there are several minor differences between the words, connected with a difference in their derivation.  Unorganized is the negation of the state of being organized, while disorganized is the opposite of the action organized. This distinction leads to the following differences in meaning:Disorganized is […]