A Few Homonyms and Oddities

I recently came across some examples of homonyms and oddities of English language that caught my attention while editing work memos. Nothing revolutionary here, just a few curiosities I enjoyed stumbling across, but still worth a quick mention since they don’t seem to appear outside a few niche forum discussions.

Gleam vs. Glean: At first glance, “gleam” and “glean” look like they should be related. “Gleam” refers to something shiny or bright e.g., sunlight “gleams” off a lake. “Glean”, on the other hand, is about slowly gathering or extracting information e.g., to “glean” insights from data.

Jibe with vs. Jive with: I heard someone at work say, “That insight doesn’t jive with the data.” As a sucker for colorful wordplay, I dug deeper. Turns out, the correct expression is “jibe with,” meaning to match up or align. “Jive” relates to dance or music. Still, imagining insights and data awkwardly dancing together is amusing enough that “jive with” almost makes sense to me anyway.

Artifact vs. Artefact: This isn’t technically a homonym but an interesting spelling difference. Americans use “artifact,” while the British use “artefact.” It’s a minor variation yet somehow entertaining. Much like the classic “aluminum” vs. “aluminium” debate, but thankfully a far less intense one.