Match Wits With Our Word Wizards

(Illustrated version of Word Wizards)

Discreet or Discrete?

Pick the correct homophone (a word that is pronounced like another word but differs in spelling and meaning) to use in each sentence:

1. There were a discrete /discreet number of possible answers to the problem.
2. She handled the matter discretely /discreetly .
3. These phenomena appear to occur discretely /discreetly . (They appear to occur separately and to be unrelated to each other.)
4. Pretending to be interested in the store displays, the CIA operative followed the suspected spy at a discrete /discreet distance.
5. These harmonic vibrations occur at discrete /discreet intervals, rather than over a continuous range of values.
6. It was necessary for the system to bypass the flight computers and control discrete /discreet loads directly via command uplink.
7. Heads bowed, the mourners filed by the casket in discrete /discreet silence.

For an explanation of illogical idioms, see Quirks of English.