confusableadj.
Capable of being, or liable to be, confused. Also as n. plural (and with spelling -ible), things, esp. words, that may be confused.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > perplexity, bewilderment > act of perplexing > [adjective] > liable to be confused
confusable1864
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > similar or confusable words
homoeoteleft1652
word pair1886
confusable1979
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > perplexity, bewilderment > act of perplexing > [noun] > source of confusion
apposalc1470
graveller1674
poser1793
twister1835
nonplusser1845
smog1954
mind-boggler1969
confusable1979
1864 in Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. ; and in later Dicts.
1962 I. Murdoch Unofficial Rose xxxiv. 321 You are so adorably confusable.
1968 Punch 6 Nov. 641/1 Estimates are again difficult, particularly in the field of man~power, where actual production workers are easily confusable with Walter Cronkite and between four and nine thousand other journalists.
1971 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. Jan. 159 Shorter line segments..were..necessary to define which of several confusable characters was actually presented.
1979 A. Room (title) Room's dictionary of confusibles.
1981 Amer. Speech 56 143 Readers may find that Room has missed some of their own pet confusables.
1985 Fortune 7 Jan. 74/3 As long as users avoid what researchers call confusables, such as ‘start’ and ‘stop’ or the rhyming letters of the alphabet.
1985 Eng. Today Apr. 19/1 Much of this material deals with words or constructions which are often confused, and some even specialise in these ‘confusibles’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
<
adj.1864