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Words Often Confused (D-series)


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1. Dairy: milk enterprise
Diary: daily record

2. Decease: death
Disease: sickness

3. Decent: proper
Descent: act of descending
Dissent: disagreement

4. Defer: postpone
Differ: disagree

5. Deference: regards, postponement
Difference: the quality of being unlike or dissimilar

6. Defy: challenge
Deify: worship

7. Deny: the truth of a statement
Refuse: to do a thing

8. Dependant: one who depends on another for his maintenance
Dependent: relying on

9. Deprecate: to express earnest disapproval
Depreciate: to belittle

10. Desert: barren, sandy region
Dessert: fruit course at the end of the dinner

11. Desirable: something worth wishing for
Desirous: having a desire

12. Destination: aim
Destiny: fate

13. Device: contrivance
Devise: to make, to invent

14. Devote: give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause
Devout: pious, solemn

15. Disburse: to pay out
Disperse: to scatter

16. Discover: to find an unknown thing which already exists
Invent: to devise a new thing

17. Discreet: judicious, thoughtful
Discrete: separate, distinct

18. Disinterested: objective
Uninterested: the state of not being interested

19. Divers: several, sundry
Diverse: different, varied

20. Dose: of medicine
Doze: light sleep

21. Doubt: to be uncertain
Suspect: to imagine the presence of guilt

22. Draft: rough sketch
Draught: quantity drunk at time

23. Drown: used for living beings
Sink: generally used for inanimate things

24. Dual: double
Duel: a combat between two persons




Sample Usage

Examples:


1. Dairy: My sister does not like milk supplied by the government dairy.
Diary: Some people have the habit of keeping a diary.

2. Decease: He arrived in India two days after his father's decease.
Disease: Fatal diseases like cancer are also curable in their preliminary stages.

3. Decent: People admire her for decent manners.
Descent: The descent of the hill is more dangerous than its ascent.
Dissent: The jury was in dissent over the death sentence to the murderer.

4. Defer: Please do not defer this work till tomorrow.
Differ: His opinion of our education system differs from that of his brother.

5. Deference: The youth do not seem to have deference for their elders.
Difference: There is such a great difference in the nature of two brothers.

6. Defy: Man should never defy the ways of God.
Deify: People have started deifying Gandhiji.

7. Deny: He denied he had ever taken loan from me.
Refuse: He refused to help me.

8. Dependant: In many Indian families there is just one earning member with a large number of dependants.
Dependent: Indian farmers are no longer dependent on the mercy of rains for the irrigation of land.

9. Deprecate: His brother deprecated his proposal of getting married so soon.
Depreciate: Cassius unduly depreciated Julius Caesar's character.

10. Desert: Those who have been to a desert tell us that it is not as unproductive as people think it to be.
Dessert: I felt that the dessert was better than the actual meal.

11. Desirable: Your contradicting my statement in the meeting was hardly undesirable.
Desirous: He is desirous of going Germany for higher education.

12. Destination: If a man works hard, he is sure to reach his destination.
Destiny: Destiny influences human life.

13. Device: Most of the machines are clever devices to escape human labour.
Devise: He devises many plans but he does not put into practice any of them.

14. Devote: He devotes two hours every day to learning music.
Devout: He commands respect on account of his devout actions.

15. Disburse: Salaries have not yet been disbursed.
Disperse: The police fired in the air to disperse the crowd.

16. Discover: to find an unknown thing which already exists
Invent: Electric bulb was invented by Thomas Alva Edison.

17. Discreet: I regret to say that you have not been discreet in your behavior.
Discrete: These two problems are quite discrete; it is unreasonable to discuss them together.

18. Disinterested: A disinterested study of this case will reveal that your own brother is responsible for the crisis.
Uninterested: We cannot afford to be uninterested in the current political events.

19. Divers: Divers reasons can be given to explain the failure of this scheme.
Diverse: The members of the committee expressed diverse opinions on this point.

20. Dose: You are not to take more than two doses a day of this tonic.
Doze: To see a student dozing in the class is the most irritating thing for a teacher.

21. Doubt: I entertain no doubts about his integrity.
Suspect: I suspected that someone had bribed the judge.

22. Draft: She prepared at least five drafts of the appeal.
Draught: He drank the medicine in one draught.

23. Drown: Everybody was watching when the boy was drowning.
Sink: The ship sank and all the crew was drowned.

24. Dual: She gave a memorable performance in a dual role.
Duel: In the eighteenth century England, it was a quite common practice to decide issues by fighting duels.




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