Allude vs Infer - What's the difference?
allude | infer |
To refer to something indirectly or by suggestion.
* 1597 , ,
* 1846 , George Luxford, Edward Newman, The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany: Volume 2, Part 2 ,
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Robert L. Dorit
, title=Rereading Darwin
, volume=100, issue=1, page=23
, magazine=
To introduce (something) as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence.
* 2010 , "Keep calm, but don't carry on", The Economist , 7 Oct 2010:
To lead to (something) as a consequence; to imply. (Now often considered incorrect, especially with a person as subject.)
*, II.3:
* Shakespeare
* Sir Thomas More
(obsolete) To cause, inflict (something) (upon) or (to) someone.
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.8:
(obsolete) To introduce (a subject) in speaking, writing etc.; to bring in.
* Shakespeare
As verbs the difference between allude and infer
is that allude is to refer to something indirectly or by suggestion while infer is to introduce (something) as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence.allude
English
Verb
(allud)Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V, Chapter xxix.3, 1841 ed., page 523:
- These speeches . . . do seem to allude unto such ministerial garments as were then in use.
page 474
- It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude .
citation, passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}
Synonyms
* advert, hint, imply, indicate, insinuate, intimate, point, refer, signify, suggestDerived terms
* allusive * allusionReferences
*Anagrams
* ----infer
English
Verb
(inferr)- It is dangerous to infer too much from martial bluster in British politics: at the first hint of trouble, channelling Churchill is a default tactic for beleaguered leaders of all sorts.
- These and a thousand like propositions, which concurre in this purpose, do evidently inferre .
- This doth infer the zeal I had to see him.
- The first part is not the proof of the second, but rather contrariwise, the second inferreth well the first.
- faire Serena.
- Full well hath Clifford played the orator, / Inferring arguments of mighty force.
Usage notes
There are two ways in which the word "infer" is sometimes used as if it meant "imply". "Implication" is done by a person when making a "statement", whereas "inference" is done to a proposition after it had already been made or assumed. Secondly, the word "infer" can sometimes be used to mean "allude" or "express" in a suggestive manner rather than as a direct "statement". Using the word "infer" in this sense is now generally considered incorrect.[http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000232.htm