It was Dec. 5, 2019, when I posted the following message on Facebook: “I just edited an article where the author correctly used both ‘reign’ and ‘rein’ … my heart is full!” A happy day for me—for sure—and proof that my obsession with vocabulary is not a product of pandemic-lockdown nuttiness (All work and no play makes Juliette a dull girl!) but a trait I have long possessed and nurtured.

Today’s topic is rein vs. reign. They both sound like “rain,” with the long A sound created by the digraph “ei.”