Tuesday Tricksters -- Links -- Lone

It's near the end of 2016, and I started sharing homophones (those nasty words that sound alike -- or nearly so) back in April 2015. I decided then to publish them in alphabetical order; otherwise, I'd go nuts trying to remember which ones I had worked on. I offer no more than five pairs (occasionally there's a triplet, as in this week's list) per week, and my hope is that my readers see the fallacy in thinking spellcheck will help them with every word they write! Spellcheck does only one thing: it corrects spelling. It cannot and does not correct usage. That's our job as writers.

And I don't give every single definition for each word; many words have dozens of definitions. I am just trying to point my readers to the most often used ones.

Links (n.): a type of golf course; connections; (v.) connects

Lynx (n.): any of several medium-sized wild cats, mostly of the genus Lynx.

Literal (adj.): conforming or limited to the simplest or most obvious meaning of a word or words; word for word; verbatim: a literal translation; avoiding exaggeration, metaphor, or embellishment; factual; prosaic: a literal description; a literal mind.

Littoral (adj.): of or on a shore, especially a seashore: a littoral property; the littoral biogeographic zone; (n.): a coastal region; a shore.

Lo (v. ): (archaic) look; see: now mainly in the phrase lo and behold; (inter.): used to attract attention or to show surprise

Low (adj. ): not high or tall; of little depth, quantity, intensity; (adv.): in or to a low position, level, or space: aimed low; (n.): a low level, position, or degree: The stock market fell to a new low; the sound cattle make (a moo)

Load (v.): to supply, to weigh down, to add to; to fill up; (n.): a burden, an amount to be carried

Lode (n.): any abundant or rich source (a mother lode)

Lowed (v.): mooed

Loan (v.): to give someone money that will be repaid with interest or an object that will be returned; (n.): something given that needs to be repaid or returned

Lone (adj.): singular (The Lone Ranger); solitary; by oneself

Are any of these new to you? The one I hadn't known was littoral.

You can find more definitions of these and other words at www.yourdictionary.com, a site that gives definitions from several dictionaries at the same time.

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