complement

A thorough survey of various textbooks, assignments, content area standards, and examinations yields the following list of words compiled by Jim Burke. You cannot expect to succeed on assignments if you do not understand the directions.

Looking to build your vocabulary? Then practice this list of 300 "hard words" — the kind that used to be tested on the SAT before 2016. If you're a high school student prepping for the SAT, check out Vocabulary.com's Roadmap to the SAT, which focuses on the vocabulary you'll need to ace today's SAT test.

Words that sound the same but are spelled differently (a type of homonym) can be stumbling blocks in comprehension or when trying to communicate something in writing. If you know that there's "peek" "peak" and "pique," which one do you use to describe what your character did at the window? If you use the wrong one, then your character has reached the heights (peak) or is having a fit if anger (pique) by the window. Is that what you mean? Is the character simply looking through that window (peek)? As you can see, all these words sound the same but suggest very different things. Here are 32 vocabulary words that are often confused.