This is one that may already be lost:
Crescendo (lit. “growing”) - an increase, in volume (music) or, metaphorically, in excitement or intensity
Climax - what a crescendo is building up to
vulpic: pertaining to (an acid obtained from) the lichen Cetraria vulpina
vulpine: characteristic of a fox
teem: to be full, as if ready to give birth; to be prolific; to abound, swarm
team: a set of draught animals; a group of people or animals involved in the same activity
trauma: serious injury to the body or psyche
trama: inner, fleshy substance of a mushroom’s body
grisly - gruesome, horrifying, disgusting
grizzly - (n.) a species of bear; (adj) mixed grey- and dark- haired; (adj. colloquial in the UK) tending to whine/whimper over an extended period (from v. ‘grizzle’)
Gristly - full of gristle.
A bloody murder might be both gristly and grisly, but they are probably unconnected.
Particularly if committed by a grizzly.
It’d certainly give you something to grizzle about.
interred: buried
interned: confined or imprisoned without trial
If homophones count, shoot the chute.
I’m going to repost this as I saw it misused here on the board a day or so ago.
“I loathe limburger cheese!”
“I am loath to say I loathe limburger cheese before I’ve even given it a try!”
redound: to reverberate; to arise from or out of something; to surge and overflow; (as a wave or flood) to be sent or driven back; to reflect (something good or bad, etc.) to or onto someone; etc.
rebound: to bounce back
Since it’s been brought up, to recap:
loath - adjective
: unwilling to do something contrary to one’s ways of thinking : reluctant
loathe - transitive verb
: to dislike greatly and often with disgust or intolerance : detest
And loath is pronounced with a hard th, while loathe is spelled with a soft th.
As given at the links. The “hard” th is the unvoiced sound, and “soft” is the voiced sound. But for “loath”, a second pronunciation uses the voiced th.
Note that this follows the same pattern as other English verbs that end in the, like breathe, seethe, writhe, and teethe (all pronounced with that soft th at the end).
English speakers often don’t recognize the difference in the sounds, or realize they exist at all, though they pronounce them properly based on experience. Once pointed out to them they’ll understand because they do make the sounds.
People with English as a second language often don’t know about this difference either and will not easily pronounce them differently even after learning about it. The different sounds require a slight change in the mouth that seems to be difficult to adapt to later in life.
One I’ve seen misused even in books (where presumably an editor was involved):
STANCH (to reduce the flow of something, especially blood)
versus
STAUNCH (adjective, meaning upright / faithful),
Stanch vs. Staunch: What’s The Difference? | Merriam-Webster
I guess it takes a staunch person to stanch major bleeding. But you’ll frequently see a book saying “staunch the bleeding”.
The terminology “soft” versus “hard” is counterintuitive. I would have thought that “hard th” is the one that is voiced - e.g. “The”, while “soft th” is the one that is not, e.g. “think”. But clearly I’m not up on such terminology.
I do agree that “loath” the adjective is more like “think” while “loathe” the verb is more like “the”.
(never mind, duplicate post)
Lolth - Queen of the Spiders in Dungeons and Dragons lore, worshipped by the Dark Elves (drow).
“Drow are loath to loathe Lolth, for her taste for vengeance on those who turn on her is unsurpassed, and they may find themselves turned into a giant spider.”