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I am using both words 'Earth' (in the sense of the planet Earth) and also 'earth' (in the sense of land, minerals,soil, etc) and the proofreading software shows an error asking me to make them both consistent. Please let me know if it is okay that I use both the words 'Earth', 'earth' or do I have to make them consistent. I believe that when refer to the earth as a planet then you should capitalize it.

ABGR
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Manish
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    You don't have to make them consistent – use the right one for each case. – Weather Vane Jul 17 '20 at 15:38
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    You really need to give a more detailed context. Do you you are discussing how earth is one of the important necessities for life on Earth? If what you are doing is to place ‘earth’ and ‘Earth’ in close proximity, then, especially when spoken, it will come across as weird or even confusing. But it is not a mistake of grammar or semantics. So you could tell Google to mind it’s own business. But one should avoid this kind of thing. Look for a different word for ‘earth’, like ‘soil’, for instance. – Tuffy Jul 17 '20 at 16:58
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    Proofreading software is usually stupid. – Hot Licks Jul 17 '20 at 17:32
  • Proofreading software is always stupid. This is not a question for ELU, this is a bug report for whoever made the piece of garbage you are using. Its whole purpose is not to teach you English. Its whole purpose is to try and teach English to a clump of metal. A robot that has no concept of earth, or English, or concepts. You are using software written not for humans, but for robots, and written not by humans, but by morons. You are getting bossed around by a robot programmed by an idiot. If nothing else, that should be plain illegal in any sufficiently advanced society. Uninstall right now. – RegDwigнt Jul 17 '20 at 20:28

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While some could consider this "When to capitalize the word "earth"", it seems to me that you already know that you capitalize "Earth" when it is a proper noun (referring to our planet, Earth, in our solar system), and when it is just a noun referring to land/dirt/etc you don't capitalize.

The question is really just, "is it okay to use the same homonyms and only capitalize one of them," and the answer is: yes, only capitalize the proper noun; it is okay to mix and match the two homonyms.

Tyler N
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