Retch, a verb, describes what your body does when you try to vomit (‘throw up’). It does not mean to vomit. When you vomit, you usually retch, but you can retch without vomiting: Gregory retched several times trying to throw up the poison, but nothing came out. Wretch, a noun, is a person in a wretched […]

Salacious describes (1) an attitude of lust (hunger for sex) or (2) anything intended to provoke lust. It has slightly negative, or “dirty,” connotations. One would not use salacious to describe an attractive person—but rather for example, stories about sex, or people at strip clubs (businesses where women dance naked to excite the customers). Salubrious, […]

These words, which can be nouns or verbs, are unrelated in their most common meanings. A rifle (noun) is a kind of long-gun, such as used in war and hunting. Riffle, in contrast, is usually a verb for the action of flipping through a stack of papers or cards—when a person uses their thumb to separate the […]

Sensual and Sensuous can both mean “associated with the physical senses, especially the sense of touch”: Jake and I admired the dancers’ sensual/sensuous movements. However, in the sentence above, the words have different meanings. Sensual refers to the sensory or sexual pleasure enjoyed by observers of the dancer. While sensuous refers to the aesthetic value (the […]

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein Simple means straightforward, uncomplicated, and direct. Simple is easily unsterdood—“having few parts,” “having few properties,” unambiguous, clear, and easy to understand. Simple also has secondary meanings, including humble, not showy, unsophisticated, and guileless (incapable of deception)—or, in other words, “having a child-like […]