More ignorance fought! Yes, these three words confusingly overlap in idiomatic espressions.
fjord: a long, narrow, steep-sided inlet of the sea carved by a glacier
ford: (1) a shallow place in a stream or river, or (2) to cross a stream or river at such a place
A couple of hours ago I read a Wall Street Journal article that said “to fjord a stream.” Somebody must have complained, because it looks like the article has already been corrected online.
Then there’s fnord. Which you didn’t see and therefore cannot compare to fjord or ford.
I didn’t read every post, so these may have already been posted.
Diffuse
Defuse
I see these mixed up all the time, and it pisses me off. I most recently saw it last night on a promo for the series The Diplomat on Netflix. The description mentioned how a diplomat had to diffuse international tensions.
I don’t think that would be a very good diplomat.
Also,
EDT
EST
Which stands for Eastern Daylight Time and Eastern Standard Time, respectively. As I write this, it is June, which is during Daylight Saving Time, and I am in the Eastern Time Zone of the US, so it is EDT. I see so many people using EST during EDT that it drives me up a wall.
It’s so simple to check, but even that’s too much work for some people.
Also:
Smarter folks simply use “ET” for “eastern time”. Assuming of course we’re talking about setting a meeting or event in the near future, not at some long-future date where the DST changeover is between now when we’re talking and later when the event will be.
consolation: the act of comforting someone
consultation: the act of seeking advice or discussion; or, a meeting or conference held for that purpose
I wouldn’t have thought they’re so easy to confuse, but today I spotted in the wild the error of using consolation where consultation seems to make a lot more sense: Policy 713: LGBT school policy change causes political turmoil in Canada
Initially passed in 2020 after a decade of consolations, Policy 713 in its original form asked for parental consent in order to formally change students’ names or pronouns, but made it mandatory to use a student’s preferred name if it is not possible to get permission from a parent.
predicted: stated or estimated as likely to happen in the future; forecast.
predicated: founded or based on something.
If you ever find out, let me know, so I can lament that day.
The first time I came across “whoa” in print (in a book of riddles, long ago), I pronounced it in my head “who-a”. I think the question was “what did Paul Revere say at the end of his ride?”
“Woe!”, because he was captured by the British? 
cupola: a dome-shaped structure
copula: a linking verb or device
copulate: Err … umm … blush.
carapace: shell of an insect or other creepy-crawly.
council: a body of people elected/appointed to manage the affairs of an organization.
consul: a diplomatic official.
Counsel: either an attorney or some advice.
Cowsill: Member of sibling singing group that inspired the TV show The Partridge Family
Codicil - a supplement to a will, containing an addition, explanation, modification, etc., of something in the will.
They were contemporaries but I’d never heard that the Cowsills “inspired” The Partridge Family.
Several sources indicate this. The Cowsills were around for several years before the Partridge Family began.
Seems like an unlikely pair to confuse but on the other hand, one time I began to search youtube for “turtles happy together” and it autocompleted to “turtles having sex”.