Word Traps: A Dictionary of the 5,000 Most Confusing Sound-Alike and Look-Alike Words

As a follow-up to "The Bad Speller's Dictionary", this dictionary tackles the confusing world of homophones, while broadening vocabulary. It solves the singular/plural dilemmas (alumnus, alumni; phenomenon, phenomena), explains questions of general versus specific (coliseum, Colosseum; Belgium, Belgian) and clears up general confusion in terms (bourgeois, bourgeoise and bourgeoisie; medal, meddle, metal, mettle). The dozens of errors found in newspapers magazines and advertisments every day - misspellings due more often to poor word choice or homophone error than to poor spelling skills - signal a nationwide problem (best demonstrated in the 1989 diplomas granted by Annapolis, which read "US Navel Academy"). The solution to this problem is beyond the capabilities of computer spell-checkers, which only correct nonword, typos or spelling errors. This book is the only one available that does more than correct spelling. Linfield and Krevisky have also written "The Bad Speller's Dictionary", "Guide to Films on Jobs" and "The Awful Speller's Dictionary".