Monday, June 11, 2012

sear, sere, seer

Sear or sear means means to burn or scorch the surface of something--
She put the steak on the grill and turned it over quickly, to sear it.
Sear the meat to seal in the juices.

Sere or sere ( rhymes with sear ) means means dry or withered, as dry land with dead grass or plants--
The drought left the garden sere and depressing to look at.
The landscape was sere and deserted looking; it hadn't rained in months.

Seer or seer ( rhymes with see her ) means a psychic or clairvoyant--
He gained a reputation as a seer by correctly predicting the outcome of the election.
She goes every week to a seer, convinced that the woman can predict the future.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"The seer correctly predicted that the heat wave would sear the land, leaving everything withered and sere."

Note--"Sears", always capitalized, means the department store--
Let's stop at the Sears store.
"sears", without the capital letter, is the third person singular ( he, she, it ) form of "sear"--
She sears the steaks on the grill before broiling them.
Not to be confused with "seers", meaning more than one psychic--
The seers disagreed about the future.

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