What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Alienate vs Disunite - What's the difference?

alienate | disunite |

As verbs the difference between alienate and disunite

is that alienate is to convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of while disunite is to cause disagreement or alienation among or within.

As an adjective alienate

is estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .

As a noun alienate

is (obsolete) a stranger; an alien.

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  • Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .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

    * ----

    disunite

    English

    Verb

  • To cause disagreement or alienation among or within.
  • * 1516 , , Utopia , "Of Their Military Discipline":
    • If they cannot disunite them by domestic broils, then they engage their neighbours against them.
  • * 1863 , , Hard Cash , ch. 44:
    • Secrets disunite a family.
  • To separate, sever, or split.
  • * 1899 , , Jennie Baxter, Journalist , ch. 16:
    • I have discovered how to disunite that force and that particle.
  • To disintegrate; to come apart.
  • * 1843 , , A Blot In The 'Scutcheon , Act I:
    • You cannot bind me more to you, my lord.
    Farewell till we renew... I trust, renew
    A converse ne'er to disunite again.

    Related terms

    * (l)

    Anagrams

    * ----