Just ♥ Words—slough

Slough—a great word, and one that’s kept me running to the dictionary over the years. The problem is, it has 4 different pronunciations . . . along with 6 different meanings, and I can never keep them straight.  Slough is the perfect example of a heteronym.

Don’t You Just ♥ Words?

Slough — when it sounds like . . .

slow,
is a morass or swamp or . . .
despair (as in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress)

slew,
is a sluice or drainage ditch

Sl-how . . . (or slouch, minus ch)
is a town near Liverpool, England

sluff,
is a skin (as in snake)
and a verb: to discard, throw off

—Okay, see how quickly
you can get through this—

He decided, that poor snake, in a slough of despond to slough off his slough in the slough near the slough outside Slough.

Here’s what it sounds like…

He decided, that poor snake, in a slow of despond to sluff off his sluff in the slew near the slow outside Sl-how

Well...it's how I spend my days. How do you spend yours? Got any cool words? Please join in the fun by leaving us a comment.