Meantime and Meanwhile basically have the same meaning—“(at) the same time,” “during a certain period of time.” But their grammar is different. Both words can be used as nouns, but only meanwhile can be used as an adverbial—a word that modifies a whole sentence or its main verb: You go stand in line to get […]

A magnate is a wealthy and powerful person who owns multiple businesses or properties of a certain kind. A magnet is a piece of rock or metal, or a machine, which produces a magnetic field—the natural force that causes some metals to be attracted or repelled by each other, the force known as magnetism. When we talk […]

These words are historically related, but their meanings are different. And while load is a common word with many different uses, lode is a very specific word, not used every day. Lode is a noun meaning “a deposit of metal ore”—a natural collection of metal, such as gold or iron, underground, inside the rock: The […]

Toward and Towards are just different spellings of the same word—both spellings are correct and a matter of preference. Toward is more common in American English, and towards in British English—and some American grammar mavens will claim that towards is wrong in America, but it is a matter of personal preference. Note: see the last […]

Meteorology and metrology are both sciences, as implied by the suffix -ology which means “the study of . . .” . Meteorology is the science of weather, atmospheres, and climates. Metrology is the science of measurement, especially of weights and units of measurement. Meteorology is a well-known word in English. The weather-people on television news are meteorologists and meteor is the […]