CONFUSED WITH SIMILAR WORDS

Dear Dr English,

I read the January 18, 2005 issue of The Nation and found many words with similar meanings. Could you please explain these similar words:  1. incident, accident 2. high street, main street 3. spooky stories, ghost stories 4. horror, terror

MAEW- KAEW

The word incident is used with a few meanings depending on the context. An incident is a single event or condition that is not very important or one that forms part of a bigger event.

Many television channels reported on incidents nationwide on election day.
Or it means an occurrence or event that interrupts normal procedure or is likely to cause a crisis.
A series of incidents in the south of Thailand have affected the livelihoods of the locals.

An accident is an incident that happens without anyone planning it.
I went to Cairo on business trip and met Ken by accident.
Another commonly known meaning of accident is when a vehicle crashes into something such as another car, or knocks a person down.
We saw many road accidents along the highway to Korat.

High Street and main street have basically the same meaning. They mean the main street of a town where most of the shops and banks are. Quite often the word "High Street" is used as the name of the street.
Many small retail shops on high street/main street have lost their business to the big, new department store.
Uncle Jack has been running a grocery shop on High Street for years.

A spook is a ghost, especially one that is believed to appear and haunt a place. Spooky is the feeling, meaning scary, chilling, creepy, eerie and ghostly etc.
The word spooky suggests a frightening or ghostly atmosphere. A spooky story is a scary story that tells about ghosts. It has a similar meaning to a ghost story.
My son likes to read ghost stories/spooky stories at night and then he is too scared to sleep alone in his room.

Horror is a strong feeling of alarm and dismay, usually mixed with disgust or disapproval.
Miss Muffet ran away from the big black spider in horror.
Another meaning of horror is a strong feeling of dislike and intense fear that you get from experiencing or thinking of something.
Chicken farmers live in horror of the bird flu pandemic.

A terror is someone, something or a thought that makes you very frightened. For this meaning it is the same as horror.

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