Chicago Style Workout 16:
Word Usage, Part 3

/ June 27, 2017

Take a Swing!

This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 3,” again centers on section 5.220 of CMOS 16. Writing and editing are more efficient when you never have to look up gauntlet or dither over farther versus further.

Because the list of problematic words and phrases in section 5.220 is so long, we’re breaking it into parts for the workout series. Today’s 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. For a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online, click here.)

[Editor’s update: These styles have not changed in the 17th edition, although their section numbers may have changed.]

Note: Dictionaries and style guides sometimes disagree. These questions are designed to test knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, which prefers Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition. Other style guides may follow a different dictionary.

Chicago Style Workout 16: Word Usage, Part 3 (CMOS 5.220)

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

 

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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Word Usage, Part 3”

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