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Affection vs Attention - What's the difference?

affection | attention |

As nouns the difference between affection and attention

is that affection is the act of affecting or acting upon while attention is mental focus.

As a verb affection

is to feel an affection, emotion or love for.

As an interjection attention is

{{cx|military|lang=en}} Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.

affection

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of affecting or acting upon.
  • The state of being affected.
  • An attribute; a quality or property; a condition; a bodily state; as, figure, weight, etc., are affections of bodies.
  • Bent of mind; a feeling or natural impulse or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind; any emotion; as, the benevolent affections, esteem, gratitude, etc.; the malevolent affections, hatred, envy, etc.; inclination; disposition; propensity; tendency.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-23, author=(Mark Cocker)
  • , volume=189, issue=11, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Wings of Desire , passage=Our affections for wild animals are distributed very unevenly. Take insects. Some 750,000 species have already been documented worldwide and the great American naturalist EO Wilson called them "the little things that run the world". Through their recycling of nutrients and the supply of base-level protein to a vast array of higher life forms, insects underpin the existence of life on this planet. Yet when it comes to human concern for creepy-crawlies, forget it.}}
  • A feeling of love or strong attachment.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Chapter 61
  • Mr. Bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly; his affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything else could do. He delighted in going to Pemberley, especially when he was least expected.
  • (medicine, archaic) Disease; morbid symptom; malady.
  • * Dunglison
  • a pulmonary affection

    Synonyms

    * (kind feeling) attachment, fondness, kindness, love, passion, tenderness

    Usage notes

    In the sense of "feeling of love or strong attachment", it is often in the plural; formerly followed by "to", but now more generally by "for" or "toward(s)", for example filial, social, or conjugal affections; to have an affection for or towards children

    Derived terms

    {{der3, affectional , affectionate , affectionated , affectionately , affectionateness , affectioned}}

    Verb

  • to feel an , emotion or love for.
  • attention

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (label) Mental focus.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}
  • (label) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
  • * 1818 , (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley), (Frankenstein); or, the Modern Prometheus , ch. 3,
  • She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.
  • * 1910 , (Stephen Leacock), " ,
  • For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.
  • A state of alertness in the standing position.
  • Derived terms

    () * at attention * attention deficit disorder * attention-grabbing * attention line * attention span * attention whore * attentional * centre of attention/center of attention * draw attention * flow of attention * pay attention * stand to attention

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • .
  • Statistics

    *