ACT English

act commonly confused words

Commonly Confused Words to Know for the ACT

Memorizing vocabulary lists is not the best strategy for the English or Reading sections. However, there are tons of commonly confused words that the ACT will test you on (or expect you to know how to properly use). So to help you clear up any words you may be mixing up (affect vs. effect, anyone?), we created this big list of Commonly Confused Words to Know for the ACT!

Should You Study ACT Vocabulary Lists?

While the ACT doesn’t ask questions directly about vocabulary, they will test your vocabulary in about three ways: by asking you about the author’s word choice, asking you to infer what a word means from its context, or asking you what word best fits in a sentence. We’ll explain each of these question types in detail below, with examples to help you understand how they are presented on the test.