MEPX
Chapter 6 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Sound alike
  2. 2Look alike
  3. 3Meanings people get wrong
  4. 4Who is doing what
  5. 5Grammar-driven pairs
  6. 6Words misused at work
  7. 7Phrases people mangle
  8. 8British and American differences
  9. 9Checking yourself
  10. 10Why it matters

Chapter 6 of 10

Words misused at work

Office vocabulary worth getting right.

Common slips

Ensure means make certain, insure means arrange financial cover, assure means tell someone confidently. Continual is repeated, continuous is unbroken. Practical is useful, practicable is possible.

  • Momentarily means for a moment in British English and in a moment in American.
  • Presently means soon traditionally, and now in current usage.

Precision pays

In contracts and specifications these distinctions carry weight. Ambiguity that survives into a signed document is expensive to resolve later.