You may be able to distinguish between mood-noun &quot;affect&quot; and influence-verb &quot;affect&quot; by pronunciation.  I place the emphasis for the former on the first syllable, just as in &quot;affectation&quot; whereas the emphasis is on the second syllable in the latter.  So they are homonyms, but not exactly homophones.<p>I never liked the verb sense of effect.  It always seemed to me to be too much like a managementspeak verbizating torturement of the ordinary noun sense of effect.  Obviously, the verb sense means &quot;to produce an effect&quot;, but are you really gonna diss the perfectly cromulent already-existing word that has meant that for longer--&quot;affect&quot;? ~<p><i>In condimentarius scriptor apostrophe delenda est.</i>