Would you eat soup from a bole, boll, or bowl? Would you be put to sleep listening to a boar, Boer, boor, or bore? Would a vicious dog bight, bite, or byte you? Enjoy learning about these and other confusing words in this article.
bight, bite, byte
A bight is a the middle part of a rope. It is a curve, specifically the curved part of a rope or the curve in a river. A bight is also a bay or gulf.
The sticks were bound together with the bight of the rope.
Bite can be either a noun or a verb. As a verb, bite means to cut, wound, or tear with the teeth. As a noun, a bite can be a small meal, a piece bitten of off something, or a wound made by teeth.
Sasha was afraid the growling dog would bite her.
The dog's bite was infected.
Byte, a computer term, is a group of binary digits.
There are usually eight bits in a byte.
billed, build
If you receive a notice of payment due, you have been billed. A billed animal has a beak.
The painter billed Sam for painting his house.
The duck is a billed animal.
When you construct something out of materials, you build it.
My grandson loves to build all kinds of things with legos.
biographee, biography
A biographee is a person whose life is described in a biography.
The biographee, angry because the book had been written, refused to sign the biography.
A biography is a written account of the life of someone else.
The biography of Benjamin Franklin was required to be read for the history class.
blew, blue
Blew is the past tense of blown.
She blew out the birthday candles on the cake.
Blue is the color of the sky or of water.
The blue dress is the one that appealed to her the most.
Bloc, block
A bloc is a group of legislators that band together to vote on a common interest. It is usually made up of those from both political parties.
The farm bloc received a lot of money from local farmers.
A block is a square shaped object.
A block of wood is needed for the building project.
boar, Boer, boor, bore
A boar is a wild pig.
The young men took a trip to hunt boar.
A Boer is a meat goat of South African descent.
The deep red color of the young female Boer made every buyer at the auction long to own her.
A boor is a rude or unmannerly individual.
People of the small community tended to stay away from the boor.
If you bore people, they tend to lose interest and fall asleep.
Marlene didn’t attend the lecture because she knew that it would bore her.
board, bored
A board is a piece of wood that has been sawed thin.
The stack of boards was to be used to build a closet.
When one is bored, one has no interest in what is happening.
Sandy was bored to tears by the lecture she was required to attend.
boarder, border
A boarder is a lodger who pays rent.
One of Shelley’s boarders gave her the creeps.
A border is the part or edge of a surface or area that forms its outer boundary.
The border of the property ran right along the edge of the woods.
bod, bode, bowed
Bod is a short, informal way to say body.
With her fantastic bod, she can get away with wearing that skimpy bathing suit.
Bode is a verb that means to be an omen of.
The economic status of the country bode of hard times ahead.
Bowed means curved.
The boards were bowed from prolonged exposure to heat and sunlight.
bolder, boulder
When one is bolder, one is braver.
Could Joseph prove he was bolder than his brothers?
A boulder is a huge rock.
Car after car crashed into the boulder that just appeared in the middle of the highway.
bole, boll, bowl
A bole is the stem or trunk of a tree.
The bole was so thick it would take days to cut the tree down.
Boll is the rounded seed vessel or pod of a plant.
The cotton bolls were infested with bugs.
A bowl is a rounded dish.
All of the bowls in the kitchen were dirty.
