PAIRS AND SNARES XX

The words in each group can be easily confused. Can you give a simple definition of each one that shows the difference (if any) between them?

1. SEIZE - SIEGE

2. PLAIT - PLEAT

3. OCCUR - INCUR

4. IMBED - EMBED

5. ENTICE - INCITE

6. ENDOW - IMBUE

7. MUNTIN - MULLION

8. MYRIAD - LEGION - LESION

9. TRAWL - TROLL - TOLE - TOLL

10. ALLIEVE -ALLEVIATE - ALEVE

 

Answers:

 

1. SEIZE - SIEGE - Mostly a spelling demon

    SEIZE is a verb meaning to grab.

    SIEGE is a noun meaning a prolonged attack.

 

2. PLAIT - A hair braid

    PLEAT - A fold in a skirt or pants

 

3. OCCUR - Happen, take place

    INCUR -  Come into, acquire, or become liable or subject to something through one's own

                      actions - Bring or take upon oneself

 

4. IMBED - EMBED - No difference - Both mean to fix an object firmly into a larger mass or to attach a journalist to a military unit during a conflict

 

5. ENTICE - To lure, tempt

    INCITE - Inflame passions to start something 

 

6. ENDOW - IMBUE - No difference - Both words mean to provide with something freely or naturally, to permeate or influence

 

7. MUNTINS - Small, decorative vertical and horizontal bars on the window glass itself that divide the glass into a grid

   MULLIONS - Long vertical shafts located in between windows and offering structural support for the windows. 

 

8.  MYRIAD - LEGION - Both words mean a great multitude of people or things.

     MYRIAD implies that the number of things is disorganized

     LEGION implies that the number of things is organized, as an army

     LESION - An area of body tissue that has been damaged, as a wound or ulcer

 

9.  TRAWL - To fish by dragging a net behind a boat, either on the sea floor or mid-water

     TRAWL - To search through a huge amount of stuff, data

     TRAWL - (For a man) to rudely approach a series of women at a social gathering in hopes of sexual activity

     TROLL  - To fish by using a rod and reel and dragging a baited line behind a slowly moving  boat  

      TROLL - To sing

      TROLL -  To intentionally post mean, hostile comments on the Internet to provoke conflict 

      TOLE - A kind of decorative folk art involving painting on tin, wooden utensils, and other metal objects 

     TOLL - A fee paid to use a particular road or bridge

                   The number or count of something, as casualties

                    To ring, as bells - slowly and recurrently

 

10. ALLIEVE - ALLEVIATE - Both words mean to relieve, lessen - as pain or a situation

      ALEVE is the name of a commercial, over-the-counter pain relief medicine