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Teaching Tip Category: Language Arts

Confusing Word Pairs

There are many pairs of words whose meanings students often confuse. Have your students identify the different meanings of the two words in each of the following pairs.

• beside (next to) and besides (in addition to)
• biweekly (every other week) and semiweekly (twice a week)
• indolence (laziness) and insolence (being offensive)
• exalt (hold in high esteem) and exult (rejoice)
• rebut (argue against) and refute (disprove)
• omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing)

Have your students come up with other pairs of confusing words.

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