Commonly Confused Words, Grades 11–12: List 4

On the way to the base Colonel Meecham announced to his sons in a calm, didactic voice that they were both in critical need of a haircut. The Great Santini

The voice that had spoken it was a Scholar’s, precise and pedantic and lazily arrogant, very much a Jordan College voice. The Golden Compass

She reached for a screwdriver and disassembled the puppet until he was nothing more than a pile of scattered parts. Pax

Ridgeway knew that image to be false—he didn’t need to dissemble about the business of slavery—but neither was the menace of the Randall plantation the truth. The Underground Railroad: A Novel

That offer discomfited me with revised anxieties: what would we do during the visit? The Guardian

She didn’t like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Another cop car pulled up and then another, then all eight cops started asking the crowd to disperse, only holding a few people back to ask questions. All American Boys

Last year the government disbursed $10.6 billion in Parent Plus loans to just under a million families. Salon

He was described to me as an eminent, learned Muslim, a University of Cairo graduate, a University of London Ph.D., a lecturer on Islam, a United Nations advisor and the author of many books. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Thankfully, the Audi had all sorts of flashing lights and sensors, so it could sound Red Alert when a collision was imminent. Darius the Great Is Not Okay

If you mean “inherent,” “present,” or “dwelling within,” the word is the rarely heard immanent. Woe Is I

The French troops were wiped out by a combination of fierce fighting and an epidemic of deadly yellow fever. In the Shadow of Liberty

A flu pandemic was sweeping the world that winter, with people dying by the millions. The Woman All Spies Fear

And so, this National Poetry Day, I invite you to share your own brief and witty epigrams. The Guardian

Each chapter of Maggie and Me has an epigraph from Margaret Thatcher, such as "I am extraordinarily patient…provided I get my own way in the end." The Guardian

Mrs. Parker died in 1967, having offered her own epitaph: “Excuse my dust.” New York Times

Marie seldom called Pecola the same thing twice, but invariably her epithets were fond ones chosen from menus and dishes that were forever uppermost in her mind. The Bluest Eye

I am unsure if you are being facetious or serious when you say your husband hates being told what to do, “especially with parenting.” Washington Post

Queen Elizabeth in January sent a delicately coded message to Britain’s factious political class over Brexit, urging lawmakers to seek common ground and grasp the big picture to resolve the crisis. Reuters

Near the end of the production, one dancer, playing a clueless host or fatuous TV news reporter, asked, “What is this? What are they doing?” New York Times

No politician shines as brightly or behaves at their most crass and venal as they do when they’re dancing for votes and money. Salon

So the sin involved in a second marriage is often venial, not mortal, and not serious enough to justify excluding people of good intentions from the sacraments. Seattle Times