Naval - navel

Do not confuse these spellings. The two words naval and navel sound the same, i.e., they are homophones. (Both are pronounced IPA: /'neɪ v^əl/.) Consequently the wrong spelling sometimes gets written down in the heat of the moment. This leads to unintentional amusement, which can humiliate the writer. You have been warned!

• Naval, with an '-a-' as second vowel, is the adjective from 'navy'. It means 'to do with ships, the navy or the sea'. It is used in such contexts as "a naval officer", "naval architecture" (designing ships) and "naval warfare".

• Navel, with an '-e-', is the most usual name in 'ordinary' educated English for what in more formal medical terms is an 'umbilicus'. In more colloquial English, particularly for children, it is a 'tummy button', or 'belly button'. It is the mark on the stomach where the baby's cord (more fully, the "umbilical cord") attached it to the mother before birth.

One form of the fruit the orange has a second orange growing inside it. The formation at the stem is like an umbilicus. So this kind of orange is called a "navel orange".