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In English Articles

Vocabulary-2

English can be confusing sometimes. We have listed a few words that need special attention due to their mixed set of meaning and usage.

Let's pick 2 sets of three words with some confusion and some part common:

    Afforestation, Reforestation, Deforestation:

  1. Afforestation:It is the process of plantation in an area where there has never been used to grow a crop of trees.
  2. Reforestation: It is the process of re-plantation in an area where the forest has been lost or degraded.
  3. Deforestation: It refers to the process of destruction of the forests in order to consume the land for other uses.

    Flammable, Inflammable, and Non-flammable:

  1. Flammable and Inflammable have the same meaning, both of them represent those products that burn and catch fire easily.
  2. Non-flammable or just not flammable represents those objects which are incapable of catching fire instantly.

According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, in the 1920s, the National Fire Protection Association urged people to start using the word "flammable" instead of "inflammable" (which is the original word) because they were concerned some people might think inflammable meant not-flammable. Actually, the in- in inflammable was derived from the Latin preposition meaning en- (like enflamed), not the Latin prefix meaning -un. It's not like everyone knew the derivation of the word, so the change probably made sense.