Vocabulary of Newspaper, GRE, TOEFL (EFL/ESL), etc.

Caught between words? Make the right choice. QQQQQ quote/ quotation If you quote someone, do you create a quote or a quotation? To quote is to transcribe what someone said or wrote, crediting that person. RRRRRR rebut/ refute To rebut is to try to prove something isn’t true, but to refute is to actually prove it isn’t. Getting them mixed up won’t get you kicked out of the debate club, but it’s worth knowing the difference. regrettably/ regretfully Regrettably is used when something’s a bummer, but it’s not necessarily your fault. Regretfully is when you’re full of regret, like if you decided to stay home and your friends saw your crush at the dance. reluctant/ reticent Reluctant means resisting or unwilling, while reticent means quiet, restrained, or unwilling to communicate. Is it a distinction worth preserving? respectfully/ respectively If you kiss the mob boss’s ring, do it respectfully, or full of respect and admiration. But respectively means “in the order gi

Caught between words? Make the right choice. IIIIIIIII imply/ infer Imply and infer are opposites, like a throw and a catch. To imply is to hint at something, but to infer is to make an educated guess. The speaker does the implying, and the listener does the inferring. incredible/ incredulous Incredible describes something you can’t believe because it’s so right, like an incredible double rainbow. Incredulous describes how you feel when you can’t believe something because it’s so wrong, like when someone tells you leprechauns left two pots of gold. indeterminate/ indeterminable Understanding the nuances of this word pair, indeterminate and indeterminable, hinges on understanding the words' parts. The root word, determine, means to establish something. indict/ indite If you're using indite to talk about people being formally accused of lawbreaking, you're using the wrong word: it's indict. inflammable/ inflammatory Inflammable and inflammatory can be co