✅ Avoid means to keep away from someone or something (avoid a nosy aunt; avoid danger).

✅ Sidestep means to dodge or avoid something, either by or as if stepping aside (sidestep responsibility; sidestep the issue entirely).

✅ Avoid and sidestep both mean to keep clear of something.

✅ Avoid is the more general word, and sidestep specifically suggests narrowly avoiding something.

Don’t sidestep these synonyms!

✅ Pardon means to forgive someone. It often refers to freeing someone from legal responsibility for a crime (The king pardoned the thief).

✅ Absolve means to free someone from guilt, blame, or responsibility or to declare them not guilty of a crime (He absolved her of her obligation to take out the trash).

✅ Pardon particularly suggests being no longer blamed for an act after a punishment, or part of a punishment, has already taken place (They were pardoned after serving three months).

✅ Absolve generally refers to freeing someone from blame before a punishment takes place (He was absolved of the cereal theft).

Write about a time you were absolved from any wrongdoing with the help of Grammar Coach.

✅ Pompous describes someone or something that is pretentious or that has an overly elevated tone or manner (The best man gave a pompous speech).

✅ Fustian describes something expressed in pretentious, over-the-top language (His fustian prose put me off reading his book).

✅ Pompous is the most general of these two words: it can describe both people and things (They were a pompous pair, always looking down on their colleagues).

✅ Fustian, however, specifically describes language (I had to stop listening to the fustian podcast).

Try to write the most fustian email you possibly can with the help of Grammar Coach.