Disclaimer: I'm not muscling in on JK's turf – just gambolling on it, like a spring lamb, having fun working out the literary and psychological puzzles which she is having fun setting us

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HOMOPHONES

Words which sound alike, or have very similar spelling, and so are often confused.

Occasional grammatical oddities or spelling errors need not spoil an otherwise good story. Lots of grammatical oddities or spelling errors will make your story hard work to read, and most people won't bother. They can also interrupt the flow of the story and make it hard for readers to lose themselves in the writing and really believe in it, because noticeable errors have an effect on the reader akin to stubbing your toe while walking fast. If you sometimes type "nad" for "and" and "teh" for "the", or have commas where you should have full stops, few people will notice because their brain knows the word is meant to be "and" and reads smoothly past it. But if you keep on writing "defiantly" when you mean "definitely", every time the reader comes to it they'll pull up and go "Eh?", as if their train of thought just went over a sudden bump, and then they'll become disconnected from the story.

A lot of writers in English, fannish or otherwise, trip up on homophones (sound-alikes) such as peak, peek and pique, rain, rein and reign and pour and pore, and spellcheckers don't notice them. A list of common examples originally formed part of the accompanying FanFiction Follies essay, which also contains advice on common grammatical errors often seen in fanfiction, and in unedited writing generally. But the list eventually grew so long that I've separated it out onto its own page here.

Here, then, are some examples of homophones many of which I've seen otherwise good writers trip over, and a few of which come from an online list of commonly confused word-pairs:

A lot = a large amount or number of something(s).
Allot = to assign something to a particular purpose, e.g. "I have alloted three days to building the shed". An "allotment" can refer to a strip of land, rented by a household who need more garden than they have at their house. In the U.K. and some other countries it's fairly common for a flat field with a water supply to be divided into allotments which are let out to nearby households for a token rent.

Abated = held back, blunted or curtailed.
Baited = having had some kind of bait added to it in order to lure in some kind of target, as in "A baited trap", or having been teased or jeered at.
Bated = short form of "abated", as in "Bated breath".

Abet = to assist somebody to do something, especially something dodgy – as in the charge of "aiding and abetting" a crime.
Albeit = similar to "despite", but used in a slightly different construction. "Albeit that X is so" equates to "Despite X being so", and both mean "Even though it is the case that X is so". ["Despite that X is so" is also a valid construction iirc, but very old-fashioned.]

Abhor = to feel horror or disgust about something. If you say, as some people do, that something "abhorred me", you are saying that that something or someone found you to be repellant, not the other way round.
Appal = to cause someone else to feel horror or disgust. If you say that something "appalled me", you are saying that you found something or someone else to be repellant.

Absolve = to clear someone of blame, or forgive them for a blame which does exist.
Absorb = to soak something up or incorporate it into the thing doing the absorbing.

Accept = to go along with something, such as when you "accept the situation", or to allow somebody into a group.
Except = defines the excepted thing as not part of the group of things you are talking about. For example if you say "Everybody in this town is an idiot, present company excepted", you're saying that everybody in the town is an idiot "except" yourself and the person you are talking to (are presently keeping company with).

Adapt = to change form or behaviour in order to accommodate a change in circumstances or demands.
Adept = very skilled at some particular task. "An adept", as a noun, is a person with particular skill at and knowledge of a topic, usually magic.
Adopt = take on parental responsibility for someone (human or otherwise), or take on a particular culture, fashion etc as your own.

Affect = have an influence on something, e.g. "the season affects the weather". "Affect" used as a noun is also the conscious experience of feeling emotion, and a thing which is "affecting" is emotionally touching. As a verb it can also mean to pretend or "affect" to be something you aren't, with the intention to deceive, and a person who is "affected" (rather than affected by something) is somebody with an artificial, probably over-refined manner.
Effect = the result of the influence something has on something. If A has an influence on B, then A affects B in a way which has an effect on B. To "effect" something, used as a verb, is also to succeed in bringing it into being ("He effected an escape"), and "effects", plural, can mean a person's moveable private possessions – that is, not their business tools, or large, fixed things such as a house or shed, but their books, clothes, shaving-kit, ornaments etc..

Aisle = a kind of internal corridor within a room, such as between rows of shelves in a shop, or rows of pews in a church.
Isle = an island.

Allegiance = your loyalty or support for something or someone on a large-scale, slightly impersonal level, such as your duty to an army of which you are a member, or your support for a football club.
Elegance = the state of being attractive in a calm, minimalist, graceful way. When said of a human or other animal, usually entails being fairly slim and moving in a controlled, smooth, economical way.

Allot = to assign a particular part of something to somebody or something. You commonly hear that somebody has "an alloted role", and "the allotments" refers to a field which has been divided into strips which are "alloted" to nearby families who pay a token annual rent, in return for a strip of soil which they can use as a garden or vegetable plot. Each strip is "an allotment".
A lot = a large number of something: the common misspelling "alot" is an error. A lot can also be a number or token in a draw.

Allowed = permitted.
Aloud = doing in a clearly audible (noisy) way something which could potentially be done in silence, such as e.g. speaking a word instead of just thinking it.

Allude to = to refer to or mention something.
Elude = to avoid being cornered or captured in some way: to be elusive is to be hard to pin down.

Amend = to alter something.
Emend = to alter text, specifically, in order to improve it.

Amounted to = added up to. Sometimes used metaphorically to refer to a person's achievements in life: "He never amounted to much".
Surmounted = overcame, climbed over.

Appraise = to assess something, to measure or weigh it up – "He appraised the foundations".
Aprise = to let somebody know something – "I aprised him of the results". I got caught by this one myself.

Aquire = to come into possession of something.
Require = need or insist on having or doing something.

Arc = a single arched curve, or the progress of the story of some character or thing. In Harry Potter, for example, Harry's story arc goes from pampered baby to neglected child, to naive young student, to seasoned campaigner, to junior law officer, to chief of police.
Arch = a physical curve between two level points, such as you might find over a window.
Ark = a boat or large chest used to protect and convey something precious. By extension also used for things like seed-stores used to preserve rare plants.

Arising = an old fashioned term for rising up in a physical sense, but nowadays more usually used to describe problems and issues which have been brought to people's attention and need to be considered, as in the phrase "matters arising".
Arousing = something which causes people to become excited or emotionally engaged, usually in a sexual context.

Ascent = the act of climbing or flying higher.
Assent = agreement to something.

Bail = money offered as security so an accused person can be temporarily released from prison, or the act of emptying water out of e.g. a flooded boat, one containerful at a time. By extension, to bail somebody out is to get them out of trouble by offering something. In the U.S. to bail or bail on a situation can also mean to abandon a commitment.
Bale = a block made of individual bits of some material, such as hay or cloth, strapped together, or the act of strapping the material together. I've also heard it used (by an Australian) of the act of backing someone or something into a corner to contain them.

Balmy = pleasant, gently warm weather.
Barmy = insane, supposedly from "barm", the froth on top of beer.

Bare = naked, bald, bleak, unadorned.
Bear = a big shaggy animal, or to endure or carry something (possibly a foetus), or to give birth to.
Bore = to drill a hole, or the hole itself, or something tedious and uninteresting, or carried, in the past tense. "Last Easter he bore a crown".
Bored = a hole having been drilled, past tense, or the state of feeling that something is tedious and uninteresting.
Born = was given birth to.
Borne = carried or endured.
Bourne = English spelling of the Scots "burn", a stream or rivulet – also sometimes a boundary, limit or goal, such as the barrier between life and death.

Beach = a wide strip of sand or pebbles along the edge of the sea, or sometimes of a body of fresh water.
Beech = a type of deciduous tree, or the wood of that tree.

Belie = to show that a thing which someone has presented as being so is not so, i.e. that it is a lie. The statement "The mayor's words belied his fascist agenda" would mean that the mayor claimed to have a fascist agenda (perhaps in e.g. 1930s Italy, Germany or Spain), but his words showed that his heart wasn't really in it. You could also say "The mayor's words gave the lie to his fascist agenda", and that would mean the same thing.
Betray = to let someone or something down very badly, especially by handing some advantage over them to an enemy; to reveal a secret which should have been hidden; to show that a thing is so which someone has been trying to hide. The statement "The mayor's words betrayed his fascist agenda" would mean that the mayor had been claiming not to be a fascist, but his words showed that really he was one.
Portray = describe or present a picture of something. The reason I have seen these last two confused is that when "betray" is used to mean "reveal something", that does in a sense mean portraying it in a revealing way.

Biannual = twice a year.
Biennial = once every two years.

Bitter = a sharp, acrid taste; a type of strong and very un-sweet beer; the state of being filled with anger and resentment over past events.
Bitters = a very sour, acrid mixer which is added in tiny amounts to some cocktails or soft drinks, usually seen as the brand Angostura Bitters. I once saw an American fanwriter mix them up and refer to somebody drinking "a pint of bitters": this would be roughly equivalent to drinking a pint of pure lemon-juice, except nastier.

Blanch = to turn pale. Can be said of a person becoming white in the face, but also of the act of briefly boiling some plant-based food, such as potatoes or almonds, so that they become paler and are partially cooked.
Blench = to manifest a flinching or tightening facial expression which indicates fear or disgust. Often but not always includes blanching.
Flinch = to make a slight but sharp movement away from some threat, or to make a wincing expression suggesting a desire to move away.

Blond = a male with very fair hair.
Blonde = a female with very fair hair.

Bowl = a simple concave vessel such as might hold soup, or a natural formation of the same shape; or, as a verb, the act of throwing or rolling a sizeable ball at a target.
Bowel = intestines.

Breach = a gap in a barrier, or some sort of gap in or failure to comply with an expected situation, such as a breach of etiquette, or the act of creating such a gap. Also applied to the act of breaking through the surface of a liquid, such as when a whale leaps out of the water and then crashes back down.
Breech = an aperture in a gun-stock for inserting a bullet, or half of a pair of knee-length shorts (breeches).

Breadth = another word for physical width, also used metaphorically to refer to e.g. the scope of a study.
Breath = the air moving in and out of your lungs.
Breathe = the act of moving air in and out of your lungs.

Broach = open a container, especially a container of liquid such as a beer-barrel, especially when opening it for the first time and making a first inroad on the contents; or to raise a new topic of conversation, especially one you feel uncomfortable about raising.
Brooch = a piece of ornamental jewellery which is pinned onto your clothes.

Bruit = to spread news or rumours, often seen in the constructuon "X was bruited about", where X is a news item which was spread around.
Brute = an animal, usually a land vertebrate other than a human or bird; or a person who behaves in a rough, bullying way.

But = start of a clause which runs somewhat againsat the previous one, e.g. "It was warm, but windy".
Butt = a type of barrel; or the act of a horned animal bashing something with its horns (or by extension a metaphorical clash of heads); or the left-over end of something. This last is often used either for the buttocks and anus of a human or other animal, or the last lefteover bit of a cigarette.
Butte = a hill with steep sides and a flat top, like a mesa but slimmer.

Buy = purchase.
By = alongside ("The house is by the river", "Time passes by us"); or an attribution ("This play is by Marlowe").

Calendar = an organised list of dates, used to schedule events.
Collander = a bowl pierced with multiple holes, used for straining water or other liquid from solid food.

Callous = uncaring, heedless of others' distress (this one was on the BBC website). Can also be a rare variant spelling for callus, q.v..
Callow = young and generally inexperienced, as in the phrase "a callow youth".
Callus = a thickened, roughened area of skin, generally formed as a result of frequent pressure.

Capital = a CAPITAL LETTER, or a sum of money required to undertake some enterprise. If you're being a bit old-fashioned, "Capital!" can also mean "That's great!"
Capitol = the principal city or town of a region, from which it is governed.

Cataleptic = suffering from a seizue characterised by rigidly fixed muscles, sometimes in odd postures, and reduced response to stimuli.
Catalytic = a thing which facilitates some event or change (often a chemical reaction), without itself being changed or used up, is a "catalyst", and its action is "catalysis", and its nature is "catalytic".
Catastrophic = disastrous, with far-reaching and severely negative consequences.
Paralytic = falling-down-and-passing-out drunk.

Cattle = collective noun for bovine animals, and sometimes for large farmed mammals in general.
Chattel = any property, other than freehold land. A "chattel slave" is a slave who is seen as moveable property and can be bought and sold like a farm animal, as opposed to, say, somebody who is doing compulsory unpaid work to pay off a debt.

Cite = to refer to an identified quotation or example.
Sight = the ability to see, or an object or scene whose visual appearance is noteworthy.
Site = where something is located.

Click = a single sharp tapping sound; to snap something into place.
Clique = an exclusive group, usually of friends who consciously exclude outsiders. Sometimes pronounced the same as "click", above, but more commonly rhymes with "sleek".

Climactic = coming to a climax.
Climatic = having to do with the climate (in the weather sense).

Cloches = open-bottomed plastic or glass covers used to protect plants in cold weather, often bell-shaped and placed over an individual plant. By analogy, a cloche hat is a close-fitting, skull-hugging, bell-shaped women's hat, a bit like a swimming cap only not waterproof and usually made of felt or crocheted.
Galoshes = waterproof rubber over-shoes slipped on over your regular shoes. Occasionally slang for a condom, although this is old-fashioned and I haven't heard it for decades.

Coif or coiff = a close-fitting cap, usually worn under a veil, or (verb) the act of styling somebody's hair.
Coiffure = hairstyle.
Quiff = a hairstyle in which hair is grown long at the front, as it is for a fringe/bangs, but is then brushed up and back in a prominent peak.
Quoff = to drink, often in the sense of "knocking a drink back" in big gulps.

Complement = to go well with, to accessorize, as one might say that a particular wine complements a chicken salad. A "full complement" means having all the bits of something; it can be said of people, if you have all the staff needed to perform a particular task. If a school has no staff vacancies, for example, and no need for any, it has a full complement of teachers.
Compliment = to praise or flatter a person to their face.

Comprised = made up of different parts which between them "comprise" the group or object being discussed, e.g. "The West Country comprises Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset".
Compromised = a person who has compromised has agreed to a position which falls in between two or more arguments or points of view, satisfying both of them partially and neither of them wholly. Also, if you say that a person or thing has been compromised, it means that they or their position have been undermined. If a person's health has been compromised, their health is more fragile than usual; if they themselves haved been compromised, they have been implicated in something illegal and/or in something which undermines their moral authority on a particular question. Child-abusers, for example, sometimes force their older victims to join in in abusing youinger ones, in order to "compromise" them – meaning that they will be afraid to report the abuse to the police in case they find themselves tarred with the same brush as their abusers. If a machine has been compromised, it's been damaged or weakened.

Conception = the first moment of pregnancy, in most species meaning when a sperm fertilises an ovum; or by extension, the very start of a project or idea. The verb form, "to conceive", can mean either getting pregnant, or forming an idea.
Contraception = a means of preventing conception.

Condemn = heavily criticise a thing, or mark it to be destroyed.
Condom = a waterproof sleeve used to cover the penis during sex, either to prevent conception or to prevent infection.
Condone = allow, accept or make excuses for something.

Confirmation = information which adds to (confirms) the evidence that something is the case; also a ceremony in which Catholic children, nowadays generally between ten and fifteen depending on the congregation, affirm their Catholic faith and are given a ceremonial blessing by the priest.
Conformation = the shape and proportions of something, usually of an animal. The conformation of a horse for example is its bulk, proportions, stance etc..

Console = pronounced CON-sole, a cabinet which supports instruments such as a computer terminal or the controls for a spaceship.
Console = pronounced con-SOLE, to offer comfort or reassurance to someone who is upset.
Consul = pronounced CON-sul, a diplomat or trade representative, representing their country's interests in a foreign country, often based at a consulate.

Contend = to argue or compete; to assert that something is the case.
Content = pronounced con-TENT, the state of feeling happy with how things are.
Content = pronounced CON-tent, the collection of things which are inside something else, such as the content of a book or of a chest of drawers.

Council = a formal committee chosen to make decisions or give advice, especially an elected committee who make decisions for a town.
Counsel = advice, or the act of giving advice, or a lawyer whose job is to advise the client on legal matters and represent them in court.

Crochet = to make a kind of knitted cloth by looping and knotting a continuous thread back into itself to form a dense net, by means of a single needle with a hook on the end.
Crotchet = a quarter-length musical note, or a sharp hook, or a small tool which is so shaped (and is probably not wholly unrelated to a crochet-hook), or a strange "hook", a little weirdness, in a person's habits or attitudes.

Current = pertaining to this present time, or a flow of electricity, or a linear movement of a strand of water within a larger body of water.
Currant = a small round single berry, or a small black dried grape, made from a red grape and very shrivelled (as opposed to a raisin, which is made from a white Muscatel grape and is slightly lighter in colour and a bit less shrivelled, or a sultana, which is a dried seedless white grape, golden and quite plump and juicy).

Cygnet = a baby swan.
Signet = an object, often a hard stone set into a ring, which has a symbol carved into it which can be pressed into sealing wax to show that it was the owner of the signet who sealed the document.

Dandle = to bounce a baby or pet gently up and down to amuse it.
Dangle = to hang suspended in the air.
Dongle = a small gadget for connecting a computer to broadband, often in the form of a little egg-shaped socket piece or a wireless receiver which dangles on a short cable plugged into the computer. Similar in function to a single-connection router, but only about as big as a mouse – the furry kind.

Debauch = to cause somebody to indulge in physical excess or depravity, usually of a sexual nature, or a party at which this sort of thing occurs.
Debouche or débouché = an exit or outlet (including a sales outlet), or the act of spilling out through an exit – especially from a narrow space into a wider one, such as a river emptying into the sea, or a crowd emerging from a doorway onto the street. Also used of an army joining battle. Usually pronounced exactly the same way as debauch – this is another one I've been caught by myself.

Deduce = work out from the evidence that a thing is so.
Deduct = take away something from a group of somethings – similar to subtract, but usually with a more hostile vibe, as e.g. deducting points.

Defiantly = standing up to someone or something in a challenging or cheeky way.
Definitely = certainly, no doubt about it.

Defied = opposed an order or enemy in a bold, forceful way.
Deified = elevated to official godhood.

Definite = certain, unmistakable, sometimes used to add emphasis, as when one says "There was a definite chill in the air".
Definitive = a thing which fits or provides the very definition of whatever it is, so perfect an example is it.

Depository = a place for dropping off and/or storing some specific item.
Repository = a place for storing items, especially items such as books or computer files which contain information.
Suppository = a type of pill which is inserted into the rectum, either to cure constipation or just because it is felt that the medication will be absorbed more efficiently that way.

Desert = prounced DEZ-ert, a large area of land which receives little or no rainfall, or more loosely just an area which is very sparsely covered and barren.
Desert = prounced dez-ERT, something which you receive because you deserve it, as in the phrase "just deserts", or the act of abandoning, without permission, a cause or army to which you previously belonged.
Dessert = prounced dez-ERT, a sweet course eaten after a savoury main meal.

Devoid = without something, e.g. "devoid of life".
Devout = strongly attached to a paticular religion and to obeying its tenets and rules.

Dairy = a place for milking cows or other milk-giving animals; or food and drink made using animal milk.
Diary = a record of the dates of future appointments, or of events on particular days in the past.

Desperate = in very urgent need of something.
Disparate = widely different.

Digression = when a conversation or text wanders away from the original or main topic onto a side issue.
Discretion = the state of being discreet about something (see below), especially when e.g. avoiding a sensitive topic or secret. Also, if you say a thing is "at [somebody's] discretion" it means it's up to them to decide whether it happens or not.
Diversion = when a physical side-path takes travellers away from their original path, often in order to go around an obstacle which is blocking the original path, which will then be re-joined farther on. Also, by analogy, a pleasurable pastime which distracts you from your everyday thoughts or mood.

Discreet = circumspect, covert, not obvious, not blatant.
Discrete = separated into a distinct portion. A discrete rock formation, for example, would be one with clear boundaries which made it easy to distinguish it from other rocks or soil around it, whereas a discreet one would be one that was hard to see.

Discuss = to have a back-and-forth conversation about something.
Disgust = feeling of revulsion.

Disinterested = having nothing to gain from and no strong preference for either side of a debate – having, as the saying goes, "no dog in this fight".
Uninterested = finding something dull and not worth paying attention to.

Dolt = a stupid person, and/or one who acts in an ignorant unthinking way.
Dote on = to pamper someone and make much of them, as e.g. when somebody is always fussing and crooning over a small dog or showing people pictures of their grandchild.

Dose = a discrete amount of something. Usually refers to the appropriate amount of e.g. a medicine, but is also used in phrases like "A dose of the 'flu'" or "a dose of your own medicine" (which means to be done by as you did, in a negative way).
Doss = to lie down to sleep in a casual, informal way, e.g. "I'm dossing on Dave's sofa". A doss-house used to be a very low-class, cheap place for homeless people to sleep.
Doze = either as a verb or a noun, the state of being half-asleep. Dozing off means slowly falling asleep, and to be dozy is to be a bit foolish, stupid or gullible.

Dour = having a sour or grim or pessimistic manner.
Dower = a surviving partner's portion of a deceased partner's estate.
Dowry = money or goods which a newly-wed brings to their marriage, in formal, ritualised way. Usually but not always brought by the woman (only) and financed by her parents. Often includes things needed for a new home, such as sheets.

Dual = having two parts or aspects which are similar, such as the two lanes on a dual carriageway.
Duel = a competition between two people, especially a formal, ritualized fight.

Dudgeon = a state of annoyance or resentment.
Dungeon = originally, a strong castle keep, but latterly used of underground chambers or passages, especially those used as prison cells.

Dull = blunted, uninteresting or having a matt surface.
Droll = amusing, probably in a rather dry, drawling and offhand way. "A droll", as a noun, is an actor who can make you laugh simply by standing there, without actually doing anything specific.

Elicit = to induce a particular response.
Illicit = unauthorized, at best dubiously legal, and probably done on the sly.

Elusive = hard to locate or to pin down.
Illusive = being in some sense an illusion e.g. a false impression or belief or a misleading visual trick.

Emaciated = very unhealthily thin and bony, probably due to starvation.
Emanated = emerged from or given off by something, e.g. "A loud cheer emanated from the packed hall" or "A sense of menace emanated from the shadowy form".
Emancipated = set free from some long-standing restriction. In the U.S., can refer to a teenager who is just below the local age of majority but has been legally granted the contractual and decision-making powers of an adult. Note this does not exist in the U.K. – here, a child who is able to convince a court that they need to divorce their parents will be made a "Ward of Court", which means that the state itself becomes their parent until they are sixteen.

Emit = to give out some effect, as e.g. "The radio emitted a shrill beep".
Omit = to leave out, to skip a stage, as e.g. "We omitted to bring our passports".

Emasculate = to remove the penis and testicles.
Geld = to remove the testicles, only; also called neutering when performed on small animals such as cats and dogs. Traditionally used to calm down large draught animals, as well as to render small ones sterile and less smelly. A "gelding", as a noun, is a male horse who has been gelded.

Eminent = among the best at some category ("an eminent author"), or very much something ("an eminently readable book"). I don't know why the U.S. uses "eminent domain" to refer to compulsory purchase of land by the state
Imminent = going to happen very soon.

Empirical = based on measurements or experimental results which can be directly observed.
Imperial = relating to an emperor or empire.

Enroll = to sign up to become an official member of some group.
Unroll = to straighten out something which was previously rolled up.

Entomology = the study of insects.
Etymology = the origin of words.

Entrain = to cause something to become synchronised with something else, or to be swept along with or follow on from it. Or to get on a train, analogous to embarking on a boat. This one turned up in the work of a writer I was beta-ing for, and I think it was the result of trusting the spellchecker.
Entrails = the internal organs in your abdomen, especially your gut.
Entertain = to provide somebody with amusement.

Erotic = sexually stimulating.
Erratic = unpredictable in a random, jerky sort of way.

Exacerbated = some problem or injury is made worse.
Exasperated = irritated and frustrated by something, especially in an "I've had enough of this: I'm done" way.

Excusably = some otherwise bad thing is able to be excused, that is, there was a good or at least sympathetic reason for it.
Exclusively = limited only to this group.

Exhausting = very tiring.
Exhaustive = very thorough. To make an exhaustive search, for example, is to search absolutely everywhere you can think of in great detail.

Expanding = getting bigger, and often spread more thinly as a result.
Expounding = holding forth about some topic, especially when explaining something in a systematic way.

Farther = an extra distance in a literal, physical sense, as e.g. "There's a petrol station on the left a bit farther along this road".
Father = a male parent, or an older male authority figure who is analogous to a parent: the Father/Mother of the House, for example, is the oldest MP currently serving in the British House of Commons. Also the act of a male impregnanting someone, as in "He fathered a dynasty".
Further = an extra distance in a metaphorical sense, e.g. "Before this argument goes any further ...."

Ferment = to undergo the chemical changes which produce alcohol from e.g. fruit, or to incite trouble or disorder, or a state of agitation in a group.
Foment = to incite trouble or disorder.

Fitfully = intermittently, with implications of restlessness.
Fittingly = appropriately, adequately. Note that "Fitting" can mean appropriate or well-adapted, but also the act of having a seizure.

Flaunt = display in a show-offy, attention-seeking way, as when waving a banner or flashing your engagement ring around.
Flout = ignore some rule, custom or instruction.

Foliage = the leaves of a plant or plants, or a mass of leafy plants.
Herbage = a mass of herbs, in the botanical sense – that is, plants which don't have woody stems, and which die back after flowering.
Verbiage = overly wordy or densely technical speech or writing.

Forbidding = the act of insisting that a thing not be done, or an off-putting, threatening quality or manner.
Foreboding = an ominous sense that something bad is about to happen.

Fore-sworn = having already/previously sworn to something.
Forsworn = having rejected or betrayed a thing previously sworn to or believed.

Found = present tense of verb "to found", to start some group or project ("The Magic Cirle was founded in 1905").
Found = past tense of verb "to find", that is, to locate something ("The dog was found wandering in the woods").
Fund = a sum of money set aside to pay for some item or project, or the act of providing such a sum ("The new school gymnasium was funded by public donations").

Gamble = to bet on the outcome of something.
Gambol = to bound about in a jerky, erratic way as an expression of playfulness.

Geezer = an adult man, especially an elderly and slightly rough-looking one.
Geyser = a natural hot spring which periodically erupts and shoots out spouts of hot water; or a type of domestic water heater.
Guiser = traditional Scottish equivalent and origin of U.S. trick-or-treaters, from "disguiser" because they painted their faces with patterns using soot, or wore masks.

Gizmo = slang word for any gadget, especially a small clever one.
Gizzard = the throat and stomach, especially of a bird.

Grisly = gruesome, bloody.
Grizzly = a very large sub-species of brown bear, so-called because its coat is "grizzled", i.e. it has a lot of grey mixed into it, without being solidly grey.

Heal = to cause a living thing to recover from an injury, illness or psychological trauma, or the act of so recovering. Can also be applied by extension to situations, such as "healing" a rift between people who have quarrelled.
Heel = the back part of your foot, or a dishonourable unpleasant person, similar to a "cad". "Heel" or "heel over" can also mean to lean far over to one side, especially if the thing which is doing the leaning is a ship.

Hoard = to store things up in large amounts and keep them, possibly in a secretive way, or a collection of things which have been hoarded.
Horde = a large group of somethings (usually living creatures) – especially a large mob of irregular soldiers.

Imbibe = drink a liquid or, more metaphorically, absorb something like an atmosphere or ambience.
Imbue = to infuse something with some quality. One might, for example, imbue a landscape painting with a sense of menace.

Important = playing a significant role in something, or being in a position of power.
Impotent = the state of being powerless (= not potent), of being unable to affect the outcome of something; or, of a man or other male mammal, of being unable to sustain an erection.

Imply = to suggest that a thing is so, without outright stating it.
Infer = to work out that a thing is so, probably from observing something which implies that it is.

Inapt = not "apt", not appropriate.
Inept = incompetent.

Incredible = a thing which is not credible, that is, which is too improbable to be believed.
Incredulous = the state of finding something incredible.

Install = to set something up as part of another thing, for the first time: e.g. installing a lift in a building.
Instill = to create an impression or astmosphere in some situation.

Insulate = protect from something, especially from excess heat, or to keep heat in or out.
Insult = be very rude to or about someone or something in a way which calls their good qualities or abilities into question.

Intend = to have decided or planned to do something.
Intent = the decision or plan to do something. Also the state of focussing on something with great attention. The two words are clearly related, but intend is a verb and intent is a noun or an adjective, so a person cannot intent – they can only be intent, or have the intent (or intention) to do something.
Intense = Something, usually an experiebnce, which is strong and concetrated. Possibly related to intent in its meanong of focussing on sotehing.

Inter = to bury.
Intern = as a verb, to imprison for the duration of some event; as a noun, an on-the-job trainee.

Interim = a transitional period of time before something happens, often used to refer to a temporary solution, such as an "interim government" which runs a country until elections can be held.
Intermission = an interval, in the sense of a pause for e.g. a lavatory break and a snack in the middle of doing something.
Intromission = insertion of the penis into the vagina, also in Scots law the state of managing another person's property, with or without their permission.

Irrelevant = not having any bearing on the matter currently being considered.
Irreverent = disrespectful towards some symbol or representative of religious or cultural authority.

Label = a name or description attached to something, either literally on e.g. a piece of cardboard on a string, or metaphorically, e.g. "From that day forth, Bill was labelled a coward".
Labile = esily changed.

Lath = a very thin strip of rough wood, often used to give plaster something to stick to.
Lathe = a device for spinning a piece of wood and carving it at the same time, to produce e.g. round-sectioned table legs with a pattern carved all the way around them.

Law = an organised rule or body of rules, whether human or scientific, which governs how something (often a human society) behaves.
Lore = a body of traditional stories, customs and beliefs, especially if handed down by word of mouth.

Lessen = to reduce something, to make it smaller or less important.
Lesson = something to be learned.

Lightening = getting paler/more illuminated, as seen of the sky as dawn approaches, or causing something to become paler/more illuminated.
Lightning = flashes of electrical energy seen in the sky during a storm.

Loathe = (with a hard, buzzing "th" sound which is close to a "v") to have a powerful dislike of something.
Loath = (with a soft "th" as in "moth") to be loath to do something is to be very reluctant to do it.

Lumbar = having to do with the lower back.
Lumber = timber of the sort you might use for building, or miscellaneous possessions of the kind you might store in a box-room (a.k.a. a lumber room), or the act of dumping some inconvenient thing or task onto somebody ("he lumbered me with cleaning out the garage"), or a heavy, awkward gait. Also Scots slang for a person you are going on a date with (in the quasi-sexual sense).

Magnanimous = very generous, especially being forgiving and generous to somebody you have good reason to resent.
Unanimous = everybody in a given group (such as e.g. a jury) who had an opinion about a particular question, had the same opinion.

Maquette = a small model from which to work up a bigger sculpture.
Market = a location, physical or metaphorical, in which to sell or exchange things.

Mat = a a flat pad of material which protects or cushions a surface, e.g. on the floor or on a table; or a tight, lumpy tangle in fibres such as fur.
Matt = having a non-reflective surface; or a sheet of card which forms a contrasting border around a picture mounted on it.
Matte = alternative U.S. spelling of matt.

Mews = a small, secluded back-street in a built-up area, in its original state containing garages which were initially intended to hold horse-drawn carriages belonging to families in nearby houses, and stables and tack rooms for the horses. Now usually converted into a row of small, expensive houses. Also something a cat does, like a meow only squeakier and more plaintive.
Muse = an anthropomorphic personification of artistic inspiration, or the act of pondering something.

Militate = have a substantial effect on whether something happens or succeeds, usually seen in the negative form, to "militate against" something happening.
Mitigate = make less severe or damaging.

Morality = codes of good behaviour to live by.
Morbidity = the illness rate caused by something, or the condition of being ill.
Mortality = the death rate caused by something, or the condition of being able to die.

Muscle = block of mobile tissue which pulls your skeleton around by expanding and contracting, thus changing your position.
Mussel = a flattish, ovalish, dark blueish shellfish.

Naught = nothing or no-one, in a non-mathematical sense. "It came to naught" means that "it", whatever "it" is, petered out without a productive conclusion. "Naught but he" means no-one except him. To set something at naught is to disregard or negate it. And so on.
Nought = zero or nothing in the mathematical sense.

Negligent = failing to perform some important action due to avoidable laziness or carelessness.
Negligible = something so small or unimportant that its effects are insignificant, e.g. "The rain on Saturday had a negligible effect on trade".

... no end = to do X without limit (without coming to an end).
... to no end = to do X without point or purpose (having no end, that is, no goal in mind).

Pacific = peaceful. The Pacific Ocean is so called because the water there is generally calmer than in the Atlantic.
Specific = this particular one, rather than some other one.

Palatable = pleasant-tasting, or at least not actively unpleasant-tasting, so that one could eat it without revulsion.
Palpable = literally, able to be palpated – that is, something physical you can handle. Used metaphorically of atmospheres and moods which are so strong they almost feel as if you could touch them physically.

Palate = the roof and back of your mouth, or your taste for different flavours.
Palette = a board on which a painter carries small amounts of diferent paints s/he is currently using, and by implication the range of colours in a particular image, or which are available in a particular graphics program.

Panda = a black and white (or occasionally brown and cream), mostly vegetarian bear or a red, chestnut and cream animal resembling a racoon with bear-like feet. Strictly speaking the red panda is the original panda, and the giant panda or panda bear is named after the red panda because we used to think, wrongly, that they were much more closely related than they are; but nowadays when people say "panda" without details they usually mean the bear. The red panda is placed in its own group, the Ailuridae, but is quite closely related to racoons, and the giant panda is the bear which is closest to the common ancestor of bears, Ailuridae and racoons.
Pander = to "pander to" is to satisfy somebody else's desires, probably more attentively than they deserve, while "a pander" is somebody who obtains prostitutes for another person.
Ponder = to spend a significant amount of time wondering about something in a deep, thoughtful way. To be ponderous, however, is to be heavy and slow-moving, literally or metaphorically.

Parameter = the non-physical limits of a process, activity or equation: e.g. "All odd numbers between 500 and 1,000".
Perimeter = the physical boundary of an area.

Paw = the foot of a mammal which does not have hooves or massive toenails, and is primarily used for walking rather than grasping, swimming or flying. Usuaslly reserved for feet which are roundish and preferably furry rather than long and bare like a human foot. Also the act of physically prodding, pulling or stroking something in an excessive and probably unwelcome way is said to be "pawing" it.
Pore = to "pore over" something is to hover over something and examine it closely for some time, especially when reading a piece of text very closely. Or a small hole in e.g. your skin, through which liquid (in this case sweat) passes.
Pour = like liquid from a jug.

Peak = the top of something, or to reach the highest level and then begin to fall. You would not, unless you were being funny, say that a climber had "peaked" a mountain by climbing to the peak, but a mathematical graph may peak and then either plateau or decline, and so may someone or something's performance.
Peek = to take a quick surreptitious look at something.
Pique on its own usually = sulky resentment, as in the phrase "a fit of pique", but "to pique someone's interest" is to cause them to become intrigued by something.

Peal = a loud ringing of bells, especially of two or more bells ringing together in a musical pattern.
Peel = the skin of a fruit or vegetable, or the act of removing the skin of a fruit or vegetable or of removing something similarly close-fitting, such as e.g. peeling off a pair of tights.

Pean = (pronouned pay-ann) a praise-hymn, or in general enthusiastic praise.
Peen = slang term for images in which naked penises are visible. But a ball-peen or ball-pein hammer is one where the head has a cylindrical, flat-faced projection on one side and a ball or half-ball on the other.
Peon = (pronounced pee-onn) a low-ranking worker, a peasant.

Picture = an artificial image of something. Also somebody may be said to be "a picture" if they look very attractive.
Pitcher = a jug, especially a large jug used to hold a drink; or a person who throws the ball into a bat-and-ball team game such as baseball or cricket.

Poesy = poetry, or the gift of being able to write poetry.
Posey = having an affected manner, prone to striking poses.
Posy = a small bunch of flowers, or a little snatch of decorative poetry such as you might inscribe on a ring.

Praise = to express marked admiration or approval of someone or something.
Prise = to lever something up or out, such as a tight paint-tin lid.
Prize = to value something highly, or an award given for succeeding at something.

Prescribe = to prescribe something is to recommend strongly that it should be used or taken, generally as the solution to some problem. In the U.K., at least, medicines which you can only obtain from the pharmacist if you have a formal doctor's note recommending that you take them are called prescription medicines, and the doctor prescribes them, the doctor's note is your prescription, and the pharmacist "fills" it.
Proscribe = to proscribe a thing is to forbid it from happening or being used, e.g. "Fishing in this lake is proscribed".

Principal = the main or most important thing in a series, such as the principal export of a country or, in the U.S., the Headmaster or Headmistress of a school (sometimes used here in the U.K. for the head of a university).
Principle = a governing idea, whether moral or logical. So a principle can be an ethical concept you adhere to, or a theory about how some system works, such as the famous Peter Principle – "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".

Quail = to shrink back fearfully at the idea of something alarming; or a small, round, nervous bird resembling a miniature partridge.
Quell = to suppress or reduce something, as e.g. quelling a riot.

Racked = subjected to severe pain or distress, like a person being tortured on the rack.
Wracked = sometimes used as an alternative spelling for "racked" or "wrecked", but properly means cast ashore, or by extension ending up stranded or dumped somewhere, like the bits of debris or "storm wrack" you find on a beach.
Wreaked = caused to happen, usually used in a negative, violent sense such as "he wreaked havoc", "she wreaked vengeance".
Wrecked = severely damaged so that it no longer functions.

Rain = the stuff that falls from the sky.
Rein = a strap for guiding a horse or a toddler, also used by analogy in phrases like "reining in his temper" and "given free rein".
Reign = what a ruler (in the leadership sense) does.

Respectful = to behave in a polite way which shows that you have respect for someone or something.
Respective = refers to things which belong separately to each of a group of persons or things which have already been mentioned – e.g. "the villagers returned to their respective homes" would mean that each returned to his or her personal home, rather than going to someone else's house or to the shops.

Retch = to heave and gag as if about to vomit.
Wretch = an unfortunate person at the bottom of the social heap, such as a starving peasant, or somebody who has behaved in a way which invites scorn, such that somebody might say to them "You wretch!" as an insult.

Revelry = partying.
Rivalry = two or more people or institutions each striving to do better than the other(s) in order to prove a point.

Right = something which is correct, or the act of correcting something; or something which is on the starboard side as opposed to port (left); or something to which you are entitled. "Rights", plural, can mean multiple things to which you are entitled, or the state of multiple things being in their correct state, as in the now-old-fashioned expression "Setting the world to rights", which means sorting out problems, or at least talking about doing so.
Rite = a ritual.
Wright = a craftsman who specializes in making or building some particular thing, such as e.g. a wheelwright.
Write = compose with words; set words down on paper or some other medium. Note that a person who writes plays is a playwright, not a playwrite, although they could be described as a play-writer.

Rout = rhyming with "out", a massive and probably chaotic defeat, of the kind which leads to massed enemy forces breaking and running away, literally or metaphorically. Sometimes historically used to describe a riot, or a rowdy party.
Route = pronounced like "root", the path taken between two points. A "router" in this sense is a device which directs internet traffic.
Route = to gouge out a channel in wood, using a tool also called a router. In this sense it is sometimes pronouned like "rout" and sometimes like "root", depending on who you ask and their local accent.

Sachet = a small flat packet of something such as herbs or sauce or perfume, usually designed to be torn open and then disposed of once empty.
Sashay = to walk in a strolling, swaying, self-displaying way, like a fashion model on the catwalk.

Saw = a long metal blade with a handle and a serrated edge, used for cutting through wood or similar by using long repeated strokes; or the act of using a saw to cut with; or a traditional saying or conventional piece of supposed wisdom, usually found in the phrase "old saw". Also the past tense of "see", except in some rural dialects which use "seed" instead.
Soar = fly at or to a great height.
Sore = as an adjective, moderately painful, especially said of something painful to the touch. As a noun, a chronically raw, oozing patch on the skin. As a verb, to cause sores.

Scenario = a hypothetical situation or a projection of how a situation may play out.
Scenery = the area around and behind whatever you're focusing on – the backdrop of trees, hills, buildings etc...

Scotch = whisky made in Scotland. Occasionally used to mean that a thing is from Scotland (which is how it got attached to the whisky), although this is nearly obsolete, and "Scottish" is nowadays more correct. [Note that Scotch pancakes are Scottish, but Scotch eggs are not.] As a verb, to scotch something is to put a stop to it, generally by interfering with its progress in some way rather than officially ordering it to stop.
Scots = people who come from Scotland (singular = "a Scot"), or the traditional Anglo-Saxon-derived language of Lowland Scotland, also known as Lallans and related to English about the way Dutch is related to German. Doric, the variant spoken in and around Aberdeenshire, in which among other things the "w" sound is replaced by "f", is sometimes regarded as an extreme dialect of Scots and sometimes as a related but distinct language. If you've seen Brave, Doric is what the burly boy whom nobody else could understand was speaking.

Secede = to leave or become independent of or seperate from a group of which you were previously a member, usually said of a country leaving a federation to become independent.
Succeed = to perform a task successfully, to manage to do something.

Sew = to stitch with thread, literally or metaphorically.
Sow = when rhyming with "go", to plant seeds or scatter them across fertile ground, again either literally or metaphorically.
Sow = when rhyming with "cow", the female of a pig (or related animal such as a peccary or a warthog), a guinea-pig or a bear.

Slither = moving across something in a wet, slimy way.
Sliver = rhyming with "driver", a small thin strip of something.
Slivver = Scots version of saliva, or of the act of drooling.

Sodden = soggy; soaked with water.
Sudden = happening rapidly with little or no warning.

Spur = to stir something into greater or faster action, or a metal prong worn on a rider's heel and used to prod a horse, often to tell it to go faster, or a pointy, sticking-out extension of a mountain.
Spurn = to reject something or someone.

Stationary = staying in one place, not moving. Related to "station", a stopping-point or a fixed position where something or someone is "stationed".
Stationery = letter-writing and printing sundries such as pens, paper, ink, envelopes etc..

Storey = a floor of a building in British spelling (and note that in Britain the floor at street-level is the "ground floor" and the "first floor" is the first storey above ground, so that a building of which the top floor is the fourth floor has five storeys).
Story = a tale, or a floor of a building in American spelling.

Subside = to sink from a high position back to a low position you had occupied before, as when a risen sponge-cake goes flat or a high sea calms down, or when a furiously angry and shouty person calms down again. "Subsidence" often refers to ground which is sinking, especially if it's underneath a building.
Subsidy = an additional sum of money or other material provision, added to an amount you already have in order to assist you in achieving something (survival, in some cases).
Subsist = derive enough sustenance or income to live: usually only just, so e.g. to subsist on pasta would imply you couldn't afford (or be bothered to cook) anything else. "Subsistance farming" is farming where you grow just barely enough to feed yourself and your family, but not enough to trade or store.

Sufferance = a strained kind of patience, usually found in the phrase "to take [some thing which is being put up with] on sufferance".
Suffering = extreme pain or distress, or the act of experiencing the same.

Swath = a broad strip of something, especially a clear strip which has been cut through tall grass/crops by a mower or scythe, or the line of crops which have been cut and cast onto the ground. By extension, to "cut a swath" can mean to charge through a situation, brushing everybody else out of the way.
Swathe = can be an alternate spelling of swath, above, with all the same meanings, but in addition can be a verb meaning to wrap something or someone in cloth, or a noun meaning a loose floppy length of cloth such as you might use to swathe someone or something.

Tender = soft, as in meat which is easy to cut; or a bit sore to the touch; or feeling kind and loving towards somebody in a gentle way. Also asmall boat which guides or e.g. fetches supplies for a bigger, less mobile vessel; or the act of offering to perform a service for a particular price, presumably related to "intend".
On tenterhooks = in a state of nervous tension. I've seen a TV reported call this "tenderhooks" but it's "tenterhooks", related to tents. A tenter is a wooden frame over which fabric is stretched for processing, and tenterhooks hold it there.

Timber = wood, especially large blocks and beams of wood used for construction, and trees grown to provide such wood.
Timbre = the distinguishing characteristics, the tone, of the sound produced by a voice or a musical instrument.

Tortious = pertaining to the legal term "tort", which means a wrongful civil (i.e. not outright criminal) act which causes someone else to suffer loss or harm, and which results in legal liability . Tortious Interference, for example, is where two people have a contract, and then a third person tries to persuade one of them to break the contract, thus harming the interests of the other party to the contract.
Tortuous = extremely complicated, especially something like a road-system or a maze which has a lot of complex bends in it.
Torturous = extremely painful, resembling or being actual torture.

Troop = a group of soldiers, or occasionally of actors or similar; or the act of trailing around in a band like soldiers, often in a slightly weary or resigned way as in "We trooped off down to the shops".
Trooper = a soldier in a troop. To "swear like a trooper" is to swear like a soldier.
Trope = a recurring theme in storytelling, such as "youngest son seeks his fortune" or "star-crossed lovers".
Troupe = a group of actors or acrobats – or of baboons!
Trouper = one who is always willing to make an effort and give their best performance despite all difficulties, as dedicated actors are meant to do.

Turpentine = a solvent made from pine resin, used to thin oil-based paints, clean brushes and preserve wood.
Turpitude = the state of being corrupt or depraved, usually seen in the legal expression "moral turpitude".

Undergoing = being in the process of having something done to one, such as "undergoing repairs" or "undergoing surgery".
Undertaking = the act of preparing a funeral (funeral organisers are called "undertakers" in the U.K.), or of promising to perform some task, such as "I undertake to organise the tombola stall". An undertaking, as a noun, is some kind of significant task which someone has taken on, e.g. "Renovating the bridge will be a major undertaking".

Vain = being proud of one's own appearance or abilities in a smug, show-offish, self-preening way. A thing or situation which is vain can also be pointless, something which is bound to fail, as in "a vain attempt to escape" or "He applied in vain for housing benefit".
Vane = a long flat sheet of some material, designed to be moved by wind or water, such as a weather-vane or the sails of a windmill.
Vein = a blood-vessel which returns de-oxygenated blood from the body to the heart.
Fain = an old-fashioned word meaning to be glad, willing or compelled to do something, e.g. in the folk-song Broom of the Cowdenknowes the line "Fain would I be // In the north country" means "I would be very happy to be in the north country".
Feign = to pretend to be experiencing or suffering from something, e.g. "to feign illness" or "to feign interest".

Vellum = fine, translucent parchment made from calfskin and used for calligraphy.
Vellus = fine, downy body hair.

Vial or phial = a small bottle such as you might use to contain medicine or perfume.
Vile = extremely unpleasant.
Viol = a six-stringed musical instrument similar to a violin, but having looser, gut strings and a softer sound.

Vicious = gratuitously nasty.
Viscous = of a liquid, thick and gloopy.

Violation = non-consensual intrusion into a person's personal boundaries, usually physical and sexual, or the breaking of a law or custom.
Volition = personal will, control over own actions.

Vomitous = nauseating, making one feel like throwing up.
Vomitus = the substances which have been thrown up.

Wail = a sound somewhere between crying and screaming, or the act of making such a sound.
Wale = a raised welt on the skin caused by a blow or an allergic reaction; a raised ridge along the side of a wooden ship; to strike somebody, probably with a whip, in order to raise a welt.
Whale = a large cetacean (type of marine mammal), or sometimes by extension anything unusually large or impressive e.g. "I had a whale of a time", meaning "I had a really great time".
Wales = a sub-country of the united kingdom, forming a large bulge at mid-left of the ilsand of Great Britain.

Waist = the area between a human's hips and ribcage, and by extension any pinched-in area of something which is wider on either side of the pinch, such as the narrow bit in the middle of a dumbell.
Waste = something discarded or left over and of no use, especially discarded material produced as a side-effect of some biological or manufacturing process; or a barren, sparsely- or un-inhabited region not suitable for farming; or the act of becoming thin in an unhealthy way; or of needlessly allowing some resource to go unused (especially when talking about neglected talent), or to be used up without benefit or thrown away unneccesarily.

Want = desire or need.
Wont = usual habit.
Won't = will not.
Unwanted = not desired.
Unwonted = not your usual practice.
Unwarranted = not justified.

Wary = nervous that some person or thing may be about to do something nasty.
Weary = tired.

Weather = what the local climate is currently doing in terms of wind, sunshine etc., or as a verb, to wear down and age something. A thing which is "weathered" has been worn-down and has lost any new look it once had: often literally due to exposure to wind and rain
Wether = a gelded male sheep.
Whether = used to speculate whether something is true.

Welch = to unilaterally ditch some kind of promise or arrangement without completing it, especially as seen in the phrase "to welch on a deal".
Welsh = coming from or belonging to Wales, or the native Celtic language traditionally spoken in parts of that country. Note that Welsh Rarebit – which is often pronounced and occasionally spelled Welsh Rabbit – is a fancy kind of melted-cheese-and-beer sauce on toast.

Weld = to join two things very permanently together: especially, to join two metal things by heating them until they fuse together.
Wield = to use some object or process a forceful way, especially of a hand-held weapon, e.g. to wield a sword, but can also be used metaphorically.

Wend = to actively move along some complex, indirect path, such as wending your way through trees.
Wind = when rhyming with "mind", the act of wrapping something round something, or rotating something to tighten it. It's related to "wend" in that you could say e.g. "She wends her way along the path that winds through the trees". When rhyming with "tinned", large-scale and rapid natural movement of the air.
Wynd = a narrow and probably winding alleyway.

Whelp = a newborn puppy.
Welp = an exclamation used in the U.S..
Welt = a raised skin abrasion. If you scratch yourself and the skin isn't broken or bleeding, but it still swells up in a raised red line, that's a welt.

Whither = used to speculate whither something or someone is heading (as opposed to "whence", which asks where they're coming from).
Wither = to dry out and shrivel.
Withers = as a noun, a high ridge between the shoulder-blades, especially in equines.
Writhe = to twist and wriggle about.

Yoke = a bar used to carry weights evenly across the shoulders, or to link two draught animals together so they can pull a cart or plough; by extension anything which binds you to heavy work, such as a contract of employment, or which binds you to another person, such as a marriage.
Yolk = the central sac part of an egg, often yellow and holding nutrients which nourish the developing embryo.

N.B. Although widely misused even in Scotland, "of that ilk" does not mean "of the same kind": it means "of the same name". Specifically, it refers to a clan chief whose home estate or "clan seat" – a sort of capitol city for the clan – is named after the clan's surname. Moncreiffe of that Ilk is chief of the Moncreiffes, based at an estate called Moncreiffe; MacDonald of Keppoch is chief of a branch of the MacDonalds whose clan seat is called Keppoch. Toad of Toad Hall has been translated into Scots as Taid o' that Ilk.

Also note that it is a peculiarity of British English, and I think also of Australian, that if you say it in a significant, wink-wink tone of voice, virtually any adjective can mean drunk, including adjectives improbably constructed from random nouns (trollied; bleutered; rat-arsed etc.); virtually any verb can mean having sex; and virtually any noun can mean a homosexual, especially a gay man. As gay Scottish comedian Larry Dean put it, "Is he a... blueberry?"