7 Commonly confused words about Life and Death

Do you find yourself getting baffled with the words related to life and death?

Let's take a look at 7 such word-pairs to help you clear your doubts and make a correct choice between the homophones.

1. Dying and Dyeing

Dying is the process of ceasing life or something that is not likely to exist longer.

For e.g. Large number of people are dying due to an outburst of diarrhea in the city.

When you use some natural synthetic substance to change the color of any material or cloth, it is called dyeing.

For e.g. We are planning to commence a new business of manufacturing and dyeing of fabrics in our city.

2. Disease and Decease

When you are affected by an abnormal condition that hinders your physical functioning, then you are said to be suffering from disease.

For e.g. Practicing Yoga on a regular basis can help you in reducing the risk of heart diseases.

Decease refers to death or an end of person's life. This word is mostly used in the context of formal & legal issues.

For e.g. The deceased was a man of high intellect.

3. Accident and Incident

Accident is a sudden and unintentional event that causes injury or damage.

For e.g. Two years back, Michael Schumacher met with an accident and got a severe head injury.

Any happening or event that you experience intentionally or unintentionally is said to be an incident.

For e.g. Three thieves broke into Jack’s house last night and robbed him of his valuables. He alerted the police about the incidence in the morning.

4. Born and Borne

These words sound same. The only difference is the extra “e” you see at the end in latter.

Born is to bring a new life into existence by the process of birth.

For e.g. She was born dumb but has learned to speak some simple words.
    
Borne means to carry or transmit by the specified thing.

For e.g. H1N1, the virus that causes Swine Flu enters the human body through respiratory system. It is an airborne virus.   

5. Soul and Sole

The word sole and soul are homophones, i.e., they sound similar but have different meanings.

The vital nature or the spiritual nature of a human, believed to exist after death refers to soul.

For e.g. People gathered near India gate to pay homage to the souls of the victims of 26/11 terrorist attack.

Sole has two different meanings-

i. If you are the only owner of your business, then you will be known as the sole proprietor or entrepreneur.

For e.g. Being the only son, Jack is the sole proprietor of his family business.

Jack is the sole member of charitable trust who looks after the financial needs of orphans.

ii. It refers to the underside of foot or shoe which touches the ground.

For e.g. I returned my new pair of shoes because its sole was torn.

6. Expire and  Aspire

If something that lasts for the particular period of time comes to an end, it is said to be expired.

Very often, we talk about the expiry of medicines or cosmetics. When they are of no longer use or their validity ends, the product gets expired.

For e.g. Before taking any medicine, you must check its expiry date.

OR

When my annual membership of health club expires, I will renew it.

When you direct your ambitions to achieve something at higher level of your interest (career, profession etc), that means you are aspiring for it.
    
For e.g. If you aspire to be an engineer, you have to be dedicated to your studies.

7. Corps and Corpse

A group of military consisting of two or more sub-division are known as corps.
    
For e.g. The corps arrived impromptu at the accident spot.

Corpse - A lifeless body of human or a dead body. It does not relate to any crime.
   
For e.g. The corpse of the drowned youth was found three hours later.