PAIRS AND SNARES XLII
The words in each group can be confused. Can you give a simple definition of each one that shows the difference between them?
1. ACCESS - EXCESS
2. ACCEDE - CONCEDE
3. ACCEPT - EXCEPT - EXPECT
4. TRACK - TRACT
5. WANDER - WONDER
6. ABSTRUSE - OBTUSE
7. PRESCRIBE - PROSCRIBE
8. TORTUOUS - TORTUROUS
Answers:
1. ACCESS - Ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, communicate, or use something or someone
EXCESS - An amount that is more than necessary, usual, or allowed - an overabundance of something
2. ACCEDE - To give consent, agree, or yield to a request or demand - sometimes passively, sometimes after pressure / to assume a (high) office, position, or throne
CONCEDE - Yield, admit defeat, or surrender with great reluctance - usually after resistance
3. ACCEPT - Receive, approve, or agree to something
EXCEPT - Excluding, skipping
EXPECT - Believe, anticipate, look forward to something / to require or demand - as to expect honesty
4. TRACK - A path or trail, as of footprints or of an animal, a specialized course for racing, railroad rails, an individual song on a recording / to follow
TRACT - An area of land (housing tract) / a short pamphlet
5. WANDER - Move about in an aimless way / deviate from a topic or lose concentration - as in "letting one's mind wander"
WONDER - A mixture of surprise, curiosity, and awe at something beautiful, unexpected, or inexplicable / to feel curiosity or doubt with a desire to learn more / miraculous, as a "wonder drug"
6. ABSTRUSE - Difficult to understand, obscure
OBTUSE - Slow to understand, failing to grasp the obvious / an angle between 90 and 180 degrees
7. PRESCRIBE - Officially recommend, authorize, or lay down rules / in medicine, to order a medicine or treatment
PROSCRIBE - To forbid, prohibit, or condemn something as harmful or unlawful
8. TORTUOUS - Winding, full of twists, turns, or bends
TORTUROUS - Causing extreme pain or suffering, physically or mentally agonizing
