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Difficultés anglaises

> homophone The term for a word that is pronounced in the same way as another but is spelt in a different way and has a different meaning. Some examples of homophones include the following:• aisle, a noun meaning "a passage between rows of seats in a church, theatre, cinema etc", as in "The bride walked down the aisle on her father's arm".• isle, a noun meaning "an island", as in "the Isle of Wight".• alter, a verb meaning "to change", as in "They have had to alter their plans".• altar, a noun meaning "in the Christian church, the table on which the bread and wine are consecrated for Communion and which serves as the centre of worship", as in "The priest moved to the altar, from where he dispensed Communion", "There is a holy painting above the altar"; or "a raised structure on which sacrifices are made or incense burned in worship", as in "The Druids made human sacrifices on the altar of their gods".• ail, a verb meaning "to be ill", as in "The old woman is ailing"; "to be the matter, to be wrong", as in "What ails you?"• ale, a noun meaning "a kind of beer", as in "a pint of foaming ale".• blew, a verb, the past tense of the verb "blow", as in "They blew the trumpets loudly".• blue, a noun and adjective meaning "a colour of the shade of a clear sky", as in "She wore a blue dress".• boar, a noun meaning "a male pig", as in "a dish made with wild boar".• bore, a verb meaning "to make tired and uninterested", as in "The audience was obviously bored by the rather academic lecture".• bore, a verb, the past tense of the verb "bear", as in "They bore their troubles lightly".• cereal, a noun meaning "a plant yielding grain suitable for food", as in "countries which grow cereal crops" and "a prepared food made with grain", as in "We often have cereal for breakfast".• serial, a noun meaning "a story or television play which is published or appears in regular parts, as in "the final instalment of the magazine serial which she was following".• cite, a verb meaning "to quote or mention by way of example or proof", as in "The lawyer cited a previous case to try and get his client off".• sight, a noun meaning "the act of seeing", as in "They recognized him at first sight".• site, a noun meaning "a location, place", as in "They have found a site for the new factory".• feat, a noun meaning "a notable act or deed", as in "The old man received an award for his courageous feat".• feet, a noun, the plural form of "foot", as in "The child got her feet wet from wading in the puddle".• none, a pronoun meaning "not any", as in "They are demanding money but we have none".• nun, a noun meaning "a woman who joins a religious order and takes vows of poverty, chastity and obedience", as in "She gave up the world to become a nun".• know, a verb meaning "to have understanding or knowledge of", as in "He is the only one who knows the true facts of the situation", and "to be acquainted with", as in "I met her once but I don't really know her".• no, an adjective meaning "not any", as in "We have no food left".• rite, a noun meaning "a ceremonial act or words," as in "rites involving witchcraft".• right, an adjective meaning "correct", as in "Very few people gave the right answer to the question".• write, a verb meaning "to form readable characters", as in "he writes regularly for the newspapers".• stare, a verb and noun meaning "to look fixedly" and "a fixed gaze", as in "She stared at him in disbelief when he told her the news" and "He has the stare of a basilisk".• stair, a noun meaning "a series of flights of stairs", as in "The old lady is too feeble to climb the stairs to her bedroom". Pour éviter fautes de grammaire, contresens et confusions. The English Usage Dictionary est le parfait complément des dictionnaires bilingues, du dictionnaire de définitions anglaises et du Thesaurus. Ce dictionnaire signale toutes les difficultés que recèle l'usage d'un mot: orthographe, grammaire, prononciation, homonymies, etc. Exemple d'article du dictionnaire English Usage Dictionary