100 Commonly Confused Words with Meanings and Sentences

Many English learners get confused by words that sound alike or have similar spellings but different meanings. These are called commonly confused words. Learning them will help you write and speak English more correctly and confidently.

Below is a list of 100 confusing word pairs with meanings and example sentences in English.

Most Commonly Confusing Words

Here are the most commonly confusing words with their meanings and use in sentences. Learning these confusing words help you speak English correctly and confidently.

Affect vs. Effect

Affect is a verb.

• Cold weather can affect your skin.

Effect is a noun.

• The effect of pollution is dangerous.

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Your vs. You’re

Your means belonging.

• Is this your bag?

You’re means “you are.”

• I think you’re late.

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Their vs. There vs. They’re

• That’s their car.
• Put it over there.
• They’re going home.

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Accept vs. Except

Accept means receive.

• I accept your gift.

Except means exclude.

• Everyone joined except John.

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To vs. Too vs. Two

• I’m going to school.
• I want that too.
• We have two pens.

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Brake vs. Break

Brake means stop.

• Use the brake carefully.

Break means damages.

• Don’t break the glass.

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Buy vs. By vs. Bye

• I will buy a new phone.
• The book was written by her.
• Say bye before you leave.

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Weather vs. Whether

Weather means climate.

• The weather is nice today.

Whether means if.

• I don’t know whether to stay.

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Farther vs. Further

Farther for distance.

• He walked farther than us.

Further for progress.

• We will discuss this further.

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Whose vs. Who’s

Whose = belonging to whom.

• Do you know whose book this is?

Who’s = who is

• Who’s coming with us?

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Than vs Then

Than for comparison.

• He runs faster than me.

Then for time.

• We’ll eat and then sleep.

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Stationary vs Stationery

Stationary means still.

• The car stayed stationary.

Stationery means paper items.

• I bought new stationery.

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Principal vs Principle

Principal is a person or main part.

• The principal spoke at the meeting.

A principle is a rule.

• Honesty is a good principle.

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Allowed vs Aloud

Allowed means permitted.

• You’re not allowed to smoke here.

Aloud means spoken loudly.

• He read the poem aloud.

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A to Z List of Confused Words with Meanings

Here’s the complete list of A to Z confusing words with meanings in English. This table is going to help you to learn more easily about daily used confusing words along with their meanings.

No.	Word	Meaning of Word	Word	Meaning of Word
1	Accept	To agree or receive	Except	Excluding or leaving out
2	Access	Entry or permission	Excess	Too much of something
3	Affect	To influence something	Effect	Result or outcome
4	Advise	To give advice	Advice	A suggestion or recommendation
5	All ready	Fully prepared	Already	Before a certain time
6	Allowed	Permitted	Aloud	Spoken out loud
7	All together	In a group or united	Altogether	Completely or entirely
8	Among	In a group	Between	In the middle of two things
9	Angle	Shape formed by two lines	Angel	Spiritual being
10	Assure	To make someone confident	Ensure	To make certain
11	Bare	Without covering	Bear	To carry or tolerate
12	Bazaar	Market	Bizarre	Strange or unusual
13	Brake	To stop a vehicle	Break	To damage or rest
14	Buy	To purchase	By	Near or beside
15	Capital	City or money	Capitol	Government building
16	Ceiling	Top inside surface of a room	Sealing	Closing tightly
17	Cite	To quote or refer to	Site	Place or location
18	Coarse	Rough or crude	Course	Route or direction
19	Complement	Something that completes	Compliment	A kind or flattering remark
20	Counsel	Advice or lawyer	Council	Group for discussion or decision
21	Dairy	Milk products	Diary	A daily written record
22	Desert	Dry sandy land	Dessert	Sweet dish after a meal
23	Device	A tool or machine	Devise	To plan or invent
24	Disinterested	Neutral or impartial	Uninterested	Not interested
25	Dual	Having two parts	Duel	A fight between two people
26	Elicit	To draw out a response	Illicit	Illegal or forbidden
27	Eminent	Famous or respected	Imminent	About to happen
28	Every day	Each day	Everyday	Common or ordinary
29	Farther	Refers to physical distance	Further	Refers to degree or extent
30	Feint	A false attack	Faint	To lose consciousness
31	Flour	Powder from grains	Flower	Bloom of a plant
32	Gorilla	Large ape	Guerrilla	Member of small fighting group
33	Hear	To perceive sound	Here	In this place
34	Hole	An empty space	Whole	Complete or entire
35	Its	Belonging to it	It’s	Contraction of “it is”
36	Later	After some time	Latter	The second of two items
37	Lay	To place something down	Lie	To rest or recline
38	Lead	To guide	Led	Past tense of “lead”
39	Lend	To give temporarily	Borrow	To take temporarily
40	Loose	Not tight	Lose	To misplace or fail to win
41	Mail	Letters or parcels	Male	Opposite of female
42	Medal	Award for achievement	Metal	A solid element
43	Miner	Person who digs minerals	Minor	Person under legal age
44	Moral	Related to right or wrong	Morale	Spirit or confidence
45	Morning	Early part of the day	Mourning	Expression of grief
46	Pair	Two of something	Pear	A fruit
47	Peace	Calm or harmony	Piece	A part of something
48	Personal	Private or individual	Personnel	Employees or staff
49	Pray	To speak to God	Prey	Animal hunted by another
50	Principal	Head of school	Principle	Basic rule or belief
51	Quiet	Silent or calm	Quite	Very or completely
52	Raise	To lift up or increase	Raze	To destroy completely
53	Rain	Water from clouds	Reign	Rule by a king or queen
54	Right	Correct or direction	Write	To mark words on paper
55	Scene	Place of action	Seen	Past participle of “see”
56	Seam	Line where two pieces meet	Seem	To appear to be
57	Sight	Ability to see	Site	Place or location
58	Some	A few or part of something	Sum	Total amount
59	Sole	Only or single	Soul	Inner spirit or essence
60	Son	Male child	Sun	Star in the sky
61	Stare	To look fixedly	Stair	Step in a staircase
62	Stationary	Not moving	Stationery	Writing materials
63	Steal	To take without permission	Steel	Strong metal
64	Tail	Back part of an animal	Tale	Story
65	Team	Group of players	Teem	To overflow or be full of
66	Than	Used for comparison	Then	Refers to time or order
67	Their	Belonging to them	There	Refers to a place
68	They’re	Contraction of “they are”	Their	Belonging to them
69	Threw	Past of “throw”	Through	Moving from one side to another
70	To	Expressing motion or purpose	Too	Also or very
71	Two	Number 2	Too	Also or very
72	Vain	Proud or useless	Vein	Blood vessel
73	Waist	Body part above hips	Waste	To use carelessly
74	Weak	Not strong	Week	Period of seven days
75	Weather	State of atmosphere	Whether	Expressing choice
76	Who’s	Contraction of “who is”	Whose	Showing possession
77	Your	Belonging to you	You’re	Contraction of “you are”