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List of commonly confused homonyms

This is a list of commonly confused homonyms including both homophone and homograph.

accept: tolerate
except: everything but

add: put together with
ad: short for "advertisement"

allowed: permitted
aloud: audibly

allot: to distribute
a lot: much; many (a lot of)

bridal: pertaining to a bride (bridal gown, bridal suite)
bridle: around a horse's neck and head

chord: group of musical notes; anything that can be "struck" (It struck a sensitive chord)
cord: rope; long electrical line; vertebral column
cored: having the inside cut out, like an apple
cawed: perfect tense of caw - to make a raucous noise

dyeing: artificially coloring
dying: passing away

effect: ramification: cause and effect; sound effect (as a noun); bring about (effect change) (as a verb)
affect: have an effect on; pretentiously display (affect a British accent); emotion (in psychology and psychiatry).

faze: to temporarily stop or shock (It didn't even faze them)
phase: a stage through which one goes

here: this place (opposed to there)
hear: sense with the ears

hoard: accumulate and store up as much of something as one can
horde: large group of warriors, mob
hoared: old, mouldy, fusty
whored: past tense of "to whore" - to act as a prostitute

its: belonging to it (analogous to my, your, his, her, our, their)
it's: contraction for "it is" (analogous to I'm, you're, he's, she's, we're, they're) or "it has" (analogous to I've, you've, he's, she's, we've, they've)

llama: camelid mammal
lama: priest (The Dalai Lama)

lead: pronounced to rhyme with "seed", to guide or serve as the head of
lead: pronounced to rhyme with "head", a heavy metal
led: the past tense of "lead"
leed: a copper kettle; a cauldron
lede: the opening in a piece of journalist's copy

lock: a mechanical device for securing doors or canals; also the act of using such a device (verb); a tuft of human hair
loch: a lake or bay, usually in Scotland or Ireland (Loch Ness)
Lok: alternative name for Loki, the norse god of mischief
Locke: the surname of early liberal philosopher John Locke

mantle: one of the layers of the Earth; a cloak (by metaphorical extension, special position or role held)
mantel: over the fireplace

medal: an award to be strung around the neck
meddle: stick one's nose into others' affairs
metal: shiny, malleable element or alloy like silver, gold, iron, zinc, tin, copper, bronze or brass
mettle: toughness, guts
Note that the first two of these are only homonyms of the second two in North American accents.

muscle: one of the parts of the body used to move
mussel: a bivalve popular as seafood

past: time before now (past, present and future); beyond; after the hour (three past nine = 9:03); former (in her past life)
passed: past tense of "pass"

parse: to break down into component parts (e.g. for analysis)
pars: the acts of scoring a par in golf; also plural of "par"
parrs: plural of "parr" - a young salmonid fish

piece: portion
peace: opposite of war (peace of mind)

peak: tip, height, to reach its highest point
peek: to take a brief look, usually through a thin aperture (sneak peek)
pique: fit of anger; to incite (pique one's interest)

poor: impoverished; also, to be pitied (Poor Peter!), also bad (poor quality)
pore: a hole in the skin; to go over with great focus (pore over)
pour: to run out (said of liquid); to rain heavily

rack: a long, open container with a rectangular frame (spice rack); one's upper body
wrack: overwork (wrack one's brains)

rain: water falling from the sky
reign: to rule; hold the position as monarch
rein: the strip used to control a horse; anything that restrains; to restrain anything by pulling in its irrational exuberance (pull the reins in on)
Rayne: a city in Louisiana

reek: to stink
wreak: to bring about (wreak havoc)
reak: a rush (plant), or a prank

rest: sit down without doing anything active; the remainder
wrest: to struggle to extricate something (wrest it out of his hands)

retch: puke
wretch: person in a miserable condition

right: the direction opposite to left; correct; something a person must have his/her choice to do respected (the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness); straight or directly (went right to his heart)
write: to put down in letters; send a letter to (Write me soon!)
rite: ritual, ceremony (rites of passage)
wright: connected with other words to mean someone who constructs (playwright, scenewright, wheelwright)

ring: piece of jewelry; make a sound like a bell or telephone, or tinnitus in the ears; anything shaped like a circle or torus (like the rings in a bathtub); sound familiarly like (that rings of fascism)
wring: strangle (wring his neck)

seem: appear to
seam: a line of stitches that holds two pieces together

sight: vision
site: place, grounds; place in cyberspace
cite: quote or make a reference to; write a ticket

some: a few
sum: what you get when you add numbers; short for summarize (sum up)

soul: spirit; mellow African-American music style
sole: single and only; the surface of the bottom of the foot; flat fish like flounder, petrale or halibut
Seoul: the capital of South Korea
Sol: the solar system we live in

tear: rip; run extremely fast, jolt, bolt, dart
tare: dry measure of grains; payment in wheat; adjustment to a weighing device

their: belonging to them
there: that place (opposed to here); also used to start sentences that denote indication of the existence of something (There is a casserole in the fridge; There were many problems with her To Kill a Mockingbird essay; There are no anarchists in the White House)
they're: contraction for "they are"

therefore: thus, ergo (I think therefore I am)
therefor: for the aforementioned thing or purpose; for that (similar to thereof, thereby, therefrom, thereagainst, etc.)

to: towards or headed for; in order to; used before the infinitive of verbs
too: also; excessively
two: the number 2
tui: the parson bird
tout: as in mange-tout

waste: to use up for something pointless; sewage (toxic waste)
waist: the line that goes across the middle of your body
weighest: archaic second person singular of the verb "to weigh" (thou weighest)

weather: the meteorological conditions; to survive some wear and tear
whether: if something is so or not
wether: a male sheep (The bellwether was the ram who led the herd, and carried a bell around his neck to signal the front of the herd coming.)

whose: belonging to whom
who's: contraction for "who is" or "who has"

your: belonging to you (analogous to my, his, her, its, our, their)
you're: contraction for "you are" (analogous to I'm, he's, she's, it's, we're, they're)
yore: time long ago, a bygone age ("the days of yore")