These terms have different meanings and slightly different, but overlapping grammar. Altogether is an adverb meaning “completely” or “really”; it mainly modifies adjectives, but it can be used to modify other verbs: Modifying adjectives:  War is usually an altogether bad idea.Modifying verbs:  I altogether failed that test. All together forms an adjective or adverb phrase […]

Role is a noun referring to a character or function (purpose), such as a character in a play, a social role, or the purpose of a machine or process: Every actor wants to play the role of Hamlet.Her older sister played the role of her mother when she was growing up.What role does eating meat […]

You probably know that blond/blonde is an adjective describing hair of a yellow-gold color.  The difference between blond and blonde is purely one of spelling and grammatical gender, and this difference is quickly disappearing in the present day.Blond(e) in English is originally borrowed from French, in which adjectives take different forms depending on the gender […]

Biannual and Biennial, both adjectives, have meanings you can probably guess. Biannual means “twice a year” and biennial means “every two years”: In New Orleans we miss Mardi Gras for most of the year, so we made it a biannual event; we have regular Mardi Gras in February, and Midsummer Mardi Gras in August! Some academic conferences […]

Baloney originally was a misspelling of bologna, based on its pronunciation;  Bologna is the name of a town in Italy, that sounds like ‘baloney’ to English ears.To people outside of Italy, bologna is a kind of very fat sausage; one slice can cover a piece of bread. Usually in America, where it is quite popular, one does […]