With so-called words like "nite" and "lite" proliferating in advertising, it's no wonder we get confused when confronted by real words that happen to look like those made-up spellings. The three /s?t/ words, cite, sight, and site, have very different, distinct uses. Aside from their grouping as homonyms, they are not related. In other words, none is a Madison Avenue stand-in for another.

• cite (v) to acknowledge or recognize; to issue a formal notice of award OR violation
• sight (n) the visual sense; something which is seen; an instrument used to aid one's vision, or
  (v) to see or spot
• site (n) a location

To determine which word to use, try using the spellings of related words as a guide.

cite: to award a citation
sight: vision requires light
site: a Web site is a location of sorts

Test your knowledge by... Click here to read the rest of this post at the Word-wise Blog.

The Word-wise Blog is authored by VAF member AnnaLisa of Admin Maven.


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AnnaLisa, it's wonderful to see your blog here on Virtual Assistant Forums - your writing and grammar advice is always so thorough and touches on the things we've all gotten so lazy about in our email-hurry. Thanks for sharing your expertise with us! Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.

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