Desert and Dessert

Tell apart 'desert', a dry land, and 'dessert', a sweet treat after a meal.

'Desert' and 'dessert' differ by just one s, but they mean very different things and are said differently. 'Desert' (DEZ-ert), with one s, is a dry place that gets very little rain, like the land where cactuses and camels live. 'Dessert' (dih-ZURT), with two s's, is the sweet food you eat after a meal.

A favorite memory trick: 'dessert' has two s's because you always want seconds of something sweet. Notice the stress is different too: DEZ-ert puts the force on the first syllable, and dih-ZURT puts it on the second. Read: 'After a long day crossing the desert, the travelers shared fruit for dessert. ' The setting is the dry land; the treat comes after dinner.

• 1desert (one s, DEZ-ert) = dry land.
• 2dessert (two s's, dih-ZURT) = a sweet treat.
• 3Trick: you want seconds of dessert, so it has two s's.