✅ Designate means to mark, indicate, assign, or specify something (He was designated the leader of the group; The items that had already sold were designated with a sticker).

✅ Earmark means to set something aside for a certain purpose, often used in accounting, finance, or business (The money was earmarked for our dinner).

✅ Designate can refer to assigning a person to a role, position, or job, but earmark is almost always used for assigning purpose to things rather than people (We earmarked the donation for books; The mayor designated the librarian as the city record keeper).

✅ Earmark is a more specific and less formal word than designate.

Write about a time you earmarked money for a future purpose with the help of Grammar Coach.

✅ Know-it-all refers to a person who acts like they know everything and doesn’t listen to other people’s ideas, opinions, or views (I don’t want her on my team because she’s such a know-it-all).

✅ Pedant refers to a person who makes a big deal of their academic knowledge, often by correcting others unnecessarily or in a socially inappropriate way (That teacher is a pedant).

✅ Know-it-all and pedant refer to similar but not identical types of people. A know-it-all believes they know better than other people (Sometimes being a know-it-all can be helpful), while a pedant places inappropriate emphasis on exactness (It’s hard to have a conversation with a pedant).

✅ Both words are pretty negative, with know-it-all being more informal and pedant less common, even than its adjective form pedantic.

Write about a pedant you know or have heard of with the help of Grammar Coach.

✅ Peculiar and idiosyncratic both describe something unique to a person (They have an idiosyncratic approach to filing; He had that sense of politeness peculiar to older gentlemen).

✅ Peculiar often means strange and unusual, but in this context it describes a particular and unique characteristic belonging to a person or group of people (A trait peculiar to their family).

✅ Idiosyncratic can be a neutral word like peculiar, but can be used as a polite or discreet way to suggest strangeness or weirdness, especially in someone’s way of approaching the world (He had an idiosyncratic approach to breakfast; Her idiosyncratic handwriting was hard to imitate).

✅ Peculiar used in this way can sound old-fashioned, and idiosyncratic can sound formal.

Develop an idiosyncratic vocabulary with the help of these synonyms!