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parlay, parley. The first is to use one gain to make another (“He parlayed his winnings into a small fortune”). The second is a conference (noun) or to discuss (verb).

panacea is a universal remedy, a cure for all woes, and is not properly applied to a single shortcoming, as it was here: “One of the best panaceas for the styling similarity of many modern cars seems to be the removal of the roof” (Observer).

partly, partially. Although they are often interchangeable, their meanings are slightly different. Partially means incompletely and partly means in part. “The house was made partially of brick and partially of stone” would be better as “partly of brick and partly of stone.”

past. Often a space-waster, as in this example: “Davis said the dry conditions had been a recurrent problem for the past thirty years” (Denver Post). In this sentence, and in countless others like it, “the past” could be deleted without any loss of sense. Equally tautological and to be avoided are such expressions as past records, past history, past experience, past achievements, and past precedents.

pastiche. “This provided the occasion for a successful pastiche of that great Fonda film, Twelve Angry Men” (Times). A pastiche is a work inspired by a variety of sources. The word the writer was groping for here was parody.

peaceable, peaceful. Peaceful means tranquil and serene. Peaceable is a disposition toward the state of peacefulness.

pease pudding for the dish. (Pease was originally both the plural and singular form of the word pea.)

pedal, peddle. The first applies to devices or actions involving foot power—the pedal on a piano, to pedal a bicycle. The second is a verb only, meaning to sell goods in an informal or itinerant manner.

pedant, pedagogue. The two are synonyms. They describe someone who makes an ostentatious show of his or her learning or is dogmatically fussy about rules. Some dictionaries still give pedagogue as a synonym for teacher or educator, but its pejorative sense has effectively driven out the neutral one.

penn’orth for “a penny’s worth.”

per. Many usage guides suggest, and a few insist, that Latinisms like per should be avoided when English phrases are available—that it is better to write “ten tons a year” than “ten tons per year.” That is certainly reasonable enough in general, but I would suggest that when avoiding the Latin results in clumsy constructions such as “output a man a year,” you shouldn’t hesitate to use per.

percent, percentage point. There is an important distinction between the two terms that is not always observed, even on the financial pages. Consider the following example from the business section of The Times of London. Headline: “U.S. tax reform to cut top rate by 25%.” Story: “U.S. Senate and House officials have begun work on [a] tax reform bill which would cut the top rate for individuals from 50 percent to an estimated 25 percent.” In short, the tax rate is to fall by half and not, as the headline suggests, by a quarter.

Put another way, if interest rates are 10 percent and they rise to 11 percent, they have risen by one percentage point but by 10 percent in value. In everyday contexts this difference in meaning may often be overlooked. Even in financial circles people routinely talk about a 2 percent rise in mortgage rates when strictly they mean a two-point rise. But in contexts in which the percentage rise is large and ambiguity is likely, the distinction can be critical.

Finally, note that in Britain and most other English-speaking countries the normal spelling is per cent (though percentage remains one word).

percentage, proportion. The words are used inexactly when the relationship between two numbers isn’t specified. “This drug has proved of much value in a percentage of cases” (cited by Gowers) tells us next to nothing. It could mean 2 percent or 28 percent or 92 percent. Similarly, “a ship of large proportions” would be better replaced by “a ship of large dimensions” or simply “a large ship.”

perceptible. Not -able.