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Economic or economical?
Both words are adjectives but they have different meanings. Despite creating high levels of public debt, the government’s new ________________ policy was welcomed by businesses. Use of robots in production…
Historic or historical?
Both words are adjectives but they have very different meanings. In a _____________ step towards nuclear disarmament, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the INF Treaty in 1987. Czech attitudes towards religion…
militate, mitigate
I recently made the mistake of writing “mitigate against” instead of “militate against”: this is a propitiatory post. Consolation is to be found in being in good company, as William…
use, utilize, employ
The three verbs use, utilize (or “utilise” in many British English spelling conventions) and employ overlap significantly in usage. They cannot, however, always be substituted one for the other. Definitions…
in particular, particularly
The phrase in particular when used as a conjunctive adverb may appear at the beginning, middle or end of the sentence (cf. however): ‘The last chapters, in particular, are a…