English contains a wealth of what are colloquially called synonyms but really aren’t. Unfortunately, people who aren’t alert to subtle differences between the actual meanings of words will frequently select the wrong one for their purpose. One of the commonest cases involves the words honesty and candor. These frequently interchanged words are not really interchangeable. For example, here’s honesty in action:

Prosecutor: Mr. Smith, at about 7:35 PM on the night of October 8, 2024, on the corner of Main Street and Grand Avenue in the city of Onteora in the state of New York, did you brutally beat James Johnson to death with an iron pipe while cackling fiendishly, after which you urinated on his corpse before going to the local tavern for a drink?
Smith: Yes.

     In contrast, here’s candor:

Interviewer: Mr. Davis, what do you consider your greatest weakness?
Davis: My honesty.
Interviewer: I don’t consider honesty a weakness.
Davis: I don’t give a fuck what you think.

     Because of Davis’s misuse of honesty where candor would have been more accurate, the remainder of the interview did not go well. Don’t let this happen to you.