You may not be surprised to learn that these words are complementary; they can refer to the same person, from two complementary points of view. An emigrant is a person moving out of their country of residence, and an immigrant is a person coming into a new country for residence. The same difference is true for […]

The difference between these two nouns is subtle but important.Empathy refers to feeling what other people are feeling, or the ability to do so:  Most human beings feel empathy when they see suffering in front of them. Sympathy means caring about and understanding other people’s feelings, although one may not experience them: I have sympathy […]

These two verbs have almost opposite meanings, although they are often confused; you may see them both used to mean “excite or energize”—but this is wrong.Enervate means “make (someone) weak or tired.” Note that it begins with e- which means “out of” and here that means “take the energy out of”: Working on the project […]

These are the same word in different grammatical forms.  Envelop is the verb and envelope, the noun. They are pronounced differently: envelop as ‘en-VEL-up’ and envelope as ‘ON-vel-ope.’As you may know, one kind of envelope is the paper container that you use to send small things by “snail mail” (physical mail). However, any (relatively) thin […]

These nouns all describe short pieces of language—single words, phrases, statements, or a few lines of poetry, which comment on a person or topic. The prefix epi- means “on” or “about.”An epigram is a short, witty statement—or short poem—on any topic. Epigrams are “pointed”; they only say one thing, and they are memorable, clever, and […]