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Reeking of destruction
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Well, we failed to wreak havoc with last week's quiz 🙃 Despite the fact that the phrase is sometimes written as "wreck havoc," 80% of you got the right answer. "Wreck havoc" is an understandable mistake, because both "wreck" and "havoc" mean "destruction." But, using that logic with the verb "wreck," which means "to damage," "wreck havoc" means to damage destruction. "Wreak," meanwhile, means "to bring about," hence "wreak havoc." You didn't need the bonus points, but some of you replied to us anyway and identified the potential eggcorn in last week's newsletter: "sew the seeds," which was correctly written as "sow the seeds." We're trying something a little different in this week's quiz:
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Quick, without looking anything up, can you tell if the following sentences are correct? ❓A monarch takes the reins at the start of her reign. ❓He had free reign to develop new strategies. ❓After more than a decade on the job, she knew how to hold the reins during times of chaos. One of those sentences contains a phrase that was the subject of one of the closest quizzes we did in 2025. And if you spotted the incorrect sentence, you know which phrase it is. We had covered reign and rein in...
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