Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Know Your Homophones: Feint and Faint

Faint: Lacking strength; inclined to swoon; lacking in courage, spirit, or energy; lacking distinctness; hardly perceptible. For example: Due to the summer heat, she began to feel dizzy and faint. In the early morning hours, the sunlight is faint on the horizon. The music in the background was faint and hardly perceptible.

Feint: A movement made to confuse the opponent, a dummy; that which is feigned; an assumed or false appearance; an offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance. For example: At the last minute, he feinted to the left and avoided his opponent’s grasp. After an initial feint of moving North, she continued with her initial plan of heading East.

To learn more about homophones, read this post about three confusing word pairs.

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