The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm has been on quite a sabbatical, but she hasn’t forgotten you all! For today, we won’t focus on the colloquial alternative of that sentence closure, but rather on a common confusion between two homonyms.
This Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm moment is….
Diffuse vs Defuse (verbs)
Diffuse |di ‘fjüz|: spread out over a wide area. “Having a team leader for every grade level helped to diffuse authority in the school and empower teachers.”
Defuse |dē ‘fjüz|: to smooth out tensions. “The brothers hadn’t spoken for over 2 weeks until their mother stepped in to defuse the situation.”
Diffuse can also be applied to a substance dispersing into a liquid or the air – such as perfume or tea. Defuse can be applied to disarming a bomb, in addition to reducing danger of any kind.
Correct: The manager called a meeting to help the co-workers to defuse the tension they had over sharing an office.
Incorrect: The father showed his children how pouring a teaspoon of chlorine into the swimming pool caused it to quickly defuse and disappear.
In Closing
Diffuse = to disperse; spread out over a large area
Defuse = to calm a hostile or dangerous situation
Until next time,
The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
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