Chicago Style Workout 16:
Word Usage, Part 3

/ June 27, 2017

Women playing table tennis

Take a Swing!

This workout returns to the usage list under paragraph 5.254 in CMOS 18. Writing and editing are more efficient when you never have to look up gauntlet or dither over farther versus further.

Because the list is so long, we’re breaking it into parts for the workout series. This quiz focuses on words beginning with the letters d through g.

Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study those sections of the Manual before answering the questions. Take your time—some questions are not as simple as they seem!

(Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: These questions are designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style. Other style guides may have different rules and guidelines.

Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 16: Word Usage, Part 3

1. decimate. “The city was completely decimated.”
2. deserts; desserts. “When the joke backfired, they got their just desserts.”
3. empathy; sympathy. “Although I could never imagine myself in her shoes, at least I could empathize.”
4. enumerable; innumerable. “There are innumerable drops of water in the sea.”
5. equally as. “The two tiaras were equally as brilliant.”
6. every day, adv.; everyday, adj. “That yippy little beagle wakes me everyday.”
7. faze; phase, vb. “Jones isn’t phased by insults.”
8. flaunt; flout. “They openly flouted the rules.”
9. flounder; founder. “Debts mounted until ultimately the small business foundered.”
10. gibe; jibe. “The angry crowd hurled gibes as the suspect was led into the courthouse.”

 

Photo: Stay at Home Holidays: Entertainment and Relaxation in Wartime London, England, 1943. By Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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