CAVALRY / CALVARY

Confused by these two words? You're not alone. These two words have the dubious honor of being some of the most confusing, most mispronounced words, most misused words in the English lexicon. CAVALRY (pronounced: kav-al-ree) is the military arm of service that fights while riding horses. CALVARY (pronounced: kal-va-ree) is an open air or life-size representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a piece of raised ground. Those are two totally different definitions and purposes and yet look, sound, and feel like the exact same word. Even knowing the definitions and pronunciations I still get confused by these two whenever I see them. What makes these two in particular confusing is that the first 2 letters and the last 2 letters remain the same, while letters like "V", "A", and "L" move around within the word. I find the confusion fascinating and the image illustrates this wonderfully.