Tuesday Tricksters, September 13

Here we go again, dear readers! More Tuesday Tricksters (aka homophones) to delight and bedevil us (if we're not carefully reading what we wrote, that is). These words have the power to make any one of us look bad, so I hope we are not just trusting spellcheck to keep us looking as smart as we are!

Knead (v.): to massage something with your hands (knead bread dough)

Kneed (adj.): having knees; (v.): past tense of "to knee," hit or strike using the knee

Need (v.): to desire or require; (n.): a desire or requirement

Knew (v.): past tense of "to know"

Gnu (n.): an African antelope

New (adj.): not old

Nu (inter.): Yiddish for "So?"

Knight (n.): an honorary title; a defender, champion, or zealous upholder of a cause or principle

Night (n.): the opposite of day; the dark time

Knit (v.): to create by joining together interconnecting loops of yarn or thread in rows of stitches

Nit (n.): the egg of a louse

Knob (n.): a rounded protuberance; a rounded handle, as on a drawer or door; a prominent rounded hill or mountain

Nob (n.): (slang) the human head; (chiefly British slang) a person of wealth or social standing; (biblical) a place, north of Jerusalem, whose inhabitants were massacred by Saul

You can find more definitions of these words at www.yourdictionary.com. 

Were any of these words new to you? I had NO idea that Nob was a city in the bible; did you?

***************

I offer free generic Brush Up on Your Skills workbooks in a pdf format in American grammar, business writing, and interpersonal skills. They show what I teach in my three-hour corporate classes. Not all the answers for the quizzes are there, but if you read the information carefully, you'll learn a lot!

Want one? Let me know which one, and please send me your e-mail address. I won't use it for anything else. Promise.