Rest Assured

Today I was wondering what the difference was between ensure and insure. They have something in common, the root "sure."

The Bing dictionary defines insure thusly:

cover something with insurance: to agree formally that, for a sum of money paid to a company, the company will pay compensation or costs if a particular harm or loss occurs to somebody or something

protect against risk: to get protection from something undesirable that might happen, usually by making contingency plans or taking precautionary or preventive measures

Thus "ensure" is a synonym for insure, but insure also has the meaning of Paying for insurance on something.

And what about assure?

1. convince somebody: to convince somebody of something
2. make somebody confident: to overcome somebody's doubt or disbelief about something
3. make something certain: to make something certain to happen

You can be sure, I am liking these BING definitions!

Good Counsel

Today I am intrigued by the words counsel and council.

Counsel is a verb and it means to advise.

Council is a noun and means a official group of people.

Words that sound the same are called homophones.