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Alienate vs Alienation - What's the difference?

alienate | alienation |

As nouns the difference between alienate and alienation

is that alienate is (obsolete) a stranger; an alien while alienation is alienation.

As an adjective alienate

is estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .

As a verb alienate

is to convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.

alienate

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .
    • O alienate from God''. (John Milton). ''Paradise Lost line 4643.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

    • Verb

    (alienat)
  • To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  • To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomas Babington Macaulay):
    • The errors which alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.
  • * (rfdate) (Isaac Taylor):
    • The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

    Usage notes

    Alienate'' is largely synonymous with estrange. However, ''alienate'' is used primarily to refer to driving off (“he ''alienated'' her with his atrocious behavior”) or to offend a group (“the imprudent remarks ''alienated'' the urban demographic”), while ''estrange is used rather to mean “cut off relations”, particularly in a family setting.

    Synonyms

    * (estrange) estrange, antagonize, isolate

    References

    * ----

    alienation

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The act of alienating.
    • The alienation of that viewing demographic is a poor business decision.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1897, author=James D. Richardson, title=A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=That the mode of alienating their lands, the main source of discontent and war, should be so defined and regulated as to obviate imposition and as far as may be practicable controversy concerning the reality and extent of the alienations which are made.}}
  • The state of being alienated.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1874, author=Edward Bannerman Ramsay, title=Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=I refer to the state of our divisions and alienations of spirit on account of religion.}}
  • Emotional isolation or dissociation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1797, author=An English Lady, title=A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795,, chapter=, edition=2nd ed. citation
    • , passage=But these domestic alienations are not confined to those who once moved in the higher orders of society--the monthly registers announce almost as many divorces as marriages, and the facility of separation has rendered the one little more than a licentious compact, which the other is considered as a means of dissolving.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=1992, date=October 2, author=Jonathan Rosenbaum, title=The Road to Overload, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=To watch it even once is to be distracted, but in an evocative and resonant manner--to be drawn away from Benning's travels and alienations and reminded of one's own.}}

    Synonyms

    * estrangement