Here’s one I just ran across:
A mellow drama is not the same thing as a melodrama.
Not to be confused with co-op, an enterprise jointly owned and controlled by its members.
I’ve seen co-ops that spell it “coop” on their signage, such as the Park Slope Food Coop. So I call them the “food coop”, pronounced like the enclosure for birds.
and co-opt is something else.
absorb: to swallow up
adsorb: to collect on the surface
Absorption: the process of swallowing up
Adsorption: the process of collecting on a surface
Absorbtion: Not a real word
Adsorbtion: Also not a real word
Here is one I just saw: “The best thing about that game was the ruckus crowd”…(I presume “raucous” was intended).
We’re part of the Rukus crowd!
Respective: Particular, separate
Respected: Held in high esteem
brain: an organ in your skull
brane: a membrane, in theoretical physics
braying, brayin’: making noises like a donkey
Regardless: without regard to.
Irregardless: Not a word. I mean not really.
Flammable: able to catch fire rather easily.
Inflammable: able to catch fire rather easily.
Regardless: a non-flammable innocuous word.
Irregardless: a flammable and inflammable word that can fuel flame wars involving otherwise sensible Dopers.
maw: stomach
jaw(s): the bones and associated structures of the mouth; the cavity formed by these parts
Ignorance fought - thanks!
I would add “craw,” which does mean “mouth” (I think!).
According to the OED, “maw” can also mean “The throat or gullet; the jaws or mouth of a voracious animal or (occasionally) of a gluttonous or insatiably hungry person.” This seems to me to be the more common current usage.
I guess adding to the confusion may be slang or idiomatic uses like “shut your maw”, “fill one’s craw”. The root of “craw” means neck, throat according to the OED whence: the crop of birds or insects, transferred meaning the stomach (of man or animals) in a humorous or derisive sense, but it does not list “mouth” as a meaning of “craw”! So all three words overlap somewhat in their transferred senses, in a confusing way.
Pica: disorder that compels one to eat inedible substances
Pica: 1/6 of an inch, 12 points: used in typography
Are we going to start the list of all homonyms now? There’s already a zeugma thread.