First things first: former and latter are both terms that denote an item’s place in a two-part sequence. Former refers to the first of a set, while latter refers to the second, or last, item. They usually appear in the sentence immediately following the sequence they are describing. Former and latter in sequence Take this example from The Young Student’s Companion: “I have a grey …
When you’re among friends, you talk amongst yourselves, right? Or is it the other way around? Among and amongst are variations of the same word. Among is more common in American English, while amongst used almost exclusively in British English. History and Meaning Amongst may feel more archaic to speakers of American English, but among is actually the older word, dating back to Old English …
Et al. is used to shorten the list of names when a writer refers to a book, article or other published work that has three or more authors. Et al. means “and others.” It’s an abbreviation of the Latin et alii. It’s mainly used by academic writers when they cite other authors’ work in a paper or article. In popular media, et al. may be …
A double entendre is a subtle literary device that uses one statement to convey two very different meanings. Taken literally, a double entendre is usually an innocent statement that has no ironic or inappropriate overtones. Taken another way, the same statement often can mean something too indelicate to be said in polite company. A double entendre can also work in reverse, with an apparently dirty …
Idioms are expressions whose meanings are figurative and different from the literal meanings of the words within them. For example, the idiom “It costs an arm and a leg” means that something is very expensive. The literal meaning (that something has to be paid for with body parts) isn’t typically considered. English language learners may have a difficult time understanding idioms, since their figurative meaning …
When do you cue, and when do you queue? Cue typically refers to a signal that encourages someone to take an action, while queue indicates an ordered line or file. Both cue and queue are pronounced like the letter Q, and are considered to be homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Additionally, both cue and queue can be …
Part of the drama of hurricane season revolves around the predicting and changing of the severity—or category—of the storm. What category will the hurricane be when it hits land? What kind of damage might it inflict? What is a hurricane category? There are a few classification scales that meteorological agencies use to determine the intensity of hurricanes. The Saffir-Simpson scale is used to measure the strength of …
Since pour is a common word and sounds identical to pore, many English speakers use the verb pour in the verb phrase pore over meaning “to meditate or ponder intently.” Oops, we’ve definitely written that one incorrectly before … What does pore mean? When talking about carefully reading books, wills, or other documents, pore is the verb that you’re looking for.Pore means “to read or study with …
