A.Word.A.Day --therefor

A.Word.A.Day

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This week's theme
Words that appear to be misspellings.

This week's words
therefor
prorogue
dissert
ressentiment
recision

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

If you use spellcheckers in your day-to-day affairs, you know they are not a panacea for cacography (bad spelling). We all have seen spellcheckers approve "their" where "there" was intended, and learned the hard way that there is no substitute for good old eyeballing.

This week's AWAD will feature five words that are spelled only slightly differently from many everyday words. Let's look at these words that render your spellchecker less effective.

therefor

PRONUNCIATION:

(ther-FOR)

MEANING:

adverb: For that; in return or exchange for something, e.g. "placing an order and sending payment therefor".

ETYMOLOGY:

From Middle English therefor, from there + for. The word 'therefore' arose as a variant spelling of this word.

USAGE:

"Thrice thereafter the temple was rebuilt, each time greater and more elaborately than before, but always on the site of the original shrine, though men forgot the reason therefor."
Robert E. Howard; The Bloody Crown of Conan; Del Rey; 2004.

See more usage examples of therefor in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. -Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (1884-1972)

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