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Approach vs Function - What's the difference?

approach | function |

In lang=en terms the difference between approach and function

is that approach is to come near to in place, time, character or value; to draw nearer to while function is to carry on a function; to be in action.

As verbs the difference between approach and function

is that approach is to come or go near, in place or time; to draw nigh; to advance nearer while function is to have a function.

As nouns the difference between approach and function

is that approach is the act of drawing near; a coming or advancing near while function is what something does or is used for.

approach

English

Verb

(es)
  • To come or go near, in place or time; to draw nigh; to advance nearer.
  • * 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , xi, 20,
    • And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall?
  • * 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , x, 25,
    • Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching .
  • (figuratively) To draw near, in a figurative sense; to make advances; to approximate.
    • as he approaches to the character of the ablest statesman.
  • * 1839 , , A Tour in Sweden in 1838 , page 371,
    • Without these incentives to industry the Norwegian would be like the Laplander, without industry and civilisation ; and the nearer he approaches' to the ''beau idéal'' of those political economists — to the state of being without a taste for these foreign and expensive luxuries — the nearer he ' approaches to the condition of the Laplander in the comforts and enjoyments of life.
  • * 1898 , , The Works , Volume 11, 2006, Elibron Classics Replica Edition, page 205,
    • In this respect, the only books which approach to its excellence are Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe.
  • To come near to in place, time, character or value; to draw nearer to.
    • He was an admirable poet, and thought even to have approached Homer. -- .
    "Would counsel please approach the bench?" asked the judge.
    to approach the city
    He approached the age of manhood.
    Don't approach that house.
  • * 1831 , , Volume 1, The American Redstart,
    • When one approaches the nest of this species, the male exhibits the greatest anxiety respecting its safety, passes and repasses, fluttering and snapping its bill within a few feet, as if determined to repel the intruder.
  • * 1867 , , Chapter 53: And Last,
    • Removing with him and the old housekeeper to within a mile of the parsonage-house, where his dear friends resided, he gratified the only remaining wish of Oliver's warm and earnest heart, and thus linked together a little society, whose condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world.
  • * 1898 , , Book 1, Chapter 1: The Eve of the War,
    • Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter.
  • * 1911 [1904], , Chapter III,
    • If a variable v takes on successively a series of values that approach' nearer and nearer to a constant value l in such a manner that , v - l, [To be read ''the numerical value of the difference between'' v ''and'' l] becomes and remains less than any assigned arbitrarily small positive quantity, then v is said to '''''approach the limit'' l, or to ''converge to the limit l. Symbolically this is written
  • *:: limit v = l, or, v \dot= l.
  • *::: Usage note: In discussing convergence in mathematical analysis, modern rigorous formulations avoid using the terms approach'' and ''converge . These terms may, however, serve as a form of handwave when rigour is not required.
  • To make an attempt at (solving a problem or making a policy).
  • * 1922 , , Chapter II,
    • And it was with decision that he approached the problem of his wrecked shop.
  • To speak to, as to make a request or ask a question.
  • * 1988 Dinesh Vaghela, Publisher's Note'', in , Dinesh Publications, [http://www.well.com/user/jct/],
    • "Why bother publishing my conversations. It has not helped you, and it is not going to help anybody else", said U.G. when I approached him with the idea of publishing excerpts from his conversations with the constant stream of people who go to visit him.
  • (military) To take approaches to.
  • To bring near; to cause to draw near.
    • (Boyle)

    Noun

    (es)
  • The act of drawing near; a coming or advancing near.
  • * 1811 , , Sermons , Volume 1, page 10,
    • The approach of summer, says our Lord, is not more surely indicated by the first appearances of spring, than the final destruction of the wicked by the beginnings of vengeance on this impenitent people.
  • * 1859 , , On the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia , page 85,
    • The canine, judging from the figures published by M. Lartet1 seems to be less developed than in the male chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans[,] [i]n which character the fossil, if it belonged to a male, makes a nearer approach to the human type ; but it is one which many of the inferior monkeys also exhibit, and is by no means to be trusted as significant of true affinity, supposing even the sex of the fossil to be known as being male.
  • An access, or opportunity of drawing near.
  • * 1625 (date from Markby), , Of Ambition'', reprinted in 1856, Thomas Markby (editor), ''The Essays; or, Counsels Civil and Moral with A table of the Colours of Good and Evil , page 84,
    • Honor hath three things in it: the vantage ground to do good; the approach to kings and principal persons; and the raising of a man's own fortunes.
  • Movements to gain favor; advances.
  • A way, passage, or avenue by which a place or buildings can be approached; an access.
  • * 1900 , ,
    • It was, therefore, natural to expect that the main attack would come from the north along the railroad, and from the east, where the approach from the Transvaal boundary, which is there marked by the Buffalo River, is over a country much more practicable than the western mountain range.
  • A manner in which a problem is solved or policy is made.
  • * 1787 , , Annotations to Article 1, Section 1,
    • The functional approach' emphasizes the core functions of each branch and asks whether the challenged action threatens the essential attributes of the legislative, executive, or judicial function or functions. Under this ' approach , there is considerable flexibility in the moving branch, usually Congress acting to make structural or institutional change, if there is little significant risk of impairment of a core function or in the case of such a risk if there is a compelling reason for the action.
  • * 1980 , , Final Decision, IV: Comments,
    • Our proposed definitional approach to the data processing-communications dilemma evoked considerable discussion.
  • * 1980 , , Opinion of the Court,
    • Its [the EPA's] initial approach to controlling the amount of lead in the ambient air was to limit lead emissions from automobiles by restricting the amount of lead in gasoline.
  • * 1991', Carol Lee Johnston, Jeanne Lazaris, ''Plane Trigonometry, A New '''Approach .
  • (used only in the plural, fortification) The advanced works, trenches, or covered roads made by besiegers in their advances toward a fortress or military post.
  • (golf, tennis) An approach shot.
  • The way an aircraft lands at an airport.
  • * 2007 , , Glider Flying Handbook , page 2-9,
    • Most small airplanes maintain a speed well in excess of 1.3 times VSO on an instrument approach'. An airplane with a stall speed of 50 knots (VSO) has a normal ' approach speed of 65 knots.
  • (bowling) The area before the lane, in which a player may stand or run up before bowling the ball.

    • References

    *

    function

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • What something does or is used for.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw
    • , title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions , which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.}}
  • A professional or official position.
  • (senseid)An official or social occasion.
  • A relation where one thing is dependent on another for its existence, value, or significance.
  • (mathematics) A relation in which each element of the domain is associated with exactly one element of the codomain.
  • (computing) A routine that receives zero or more arguments and may return a result.
  • (biology) The physiological activity of an organ or body part.
  • (chemistry) The characteristic behavior of a chemical compound.
  • (anthropology) The role of a social practice in the continued existence of the group.

    • Synonyms

    * (what something does or is used for) aim, intention, purpose, role, use * (professional or official position) occupation, office, part, role * (official or social occasion) affair, occasion, social occasion, social function * many-to-one map, many-to-one mapping, mathematical function, operation, transformation * procedure, routine, subprogram, subroutine

    Hypernyms

    * (mathematics) relation

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l)

    Derived terms

    * absolutely continuous function * acidity function * adaptive-control function * additive function * additive set function * adjoint wave function * aggregate function * Airy function * Airy stress function * algebraic function * almost-periodic function * alternating function * analytic function * analytical function generator * anatomy of function * antihyperbolic function * antisymmetric wave function * antisymmetrized wave function * antitrigonometric function * arc-hyperbolic function * autocorrelation function * Baire function * bei function * ber function * Bessel function * beta function * bifunctional * biharmonic function * Bloch function * Boolean function * Borel measurable function * bounded function * boxcar function * Brillouin function * built-in function * Cantor function * characteristic function * circular function * cofunction * comparable function * complementary function * complete class of decision function * composite function * compressadensity function * computable function * concave function * confluent hypergeometric function * conjugate convex function * connect function * constant function * constraint function * contiguous function * continuous function * convex function * cosine function * cost function * countably additive set function * countably subadditive set function * critical function * cross-correlation function * cyclosymmetric function * cylinder function * decreasing function * delta function * density function * describing function * differentiable function * difunctional * digamma function * diode function generator * Dirac wave function * discriminant function * disfunction * dissipation function * driving-point function * dysfunction * effectively computable function * eigenfunction * eigenfunction expansion * Einstein partition function * electron wave function * electronic work function * elementary function * elementary symmetric function * elliptic function * Emden function * entire function * equivalent propositional function * error function * essentially bounded function * Euler's phi function * even function * excitation function * executive ego function * explicit function * exponential density function * exponential function * exponential generating function * feedback transfer function * Fermi-Dirac distribution function * form function * forward transfer function * Fowler function * frontogenetic function * function code * function failure safety * function generator * function key * function multiplier * function object * function space * function switch * function table * function unit * function-evaluation routine * functional * functionalism * functionality * gamma function * general-purpose function generator * generalized transmission function * generating function * Green's function * Hamiltonian function * Hammett acidity function * Hankel function * harmonic function * Heaviside unit function * hei function * her function * Hildebrand function * homogeneous function * Hugoniot function * hybrid wave function * hyperbolic function * hypergeometric function * identity function * implicit function * implicit function theorem * impulse function * incidence function * incomplete beta function * incomplete gamma function * increasing function * independent function * influence function * information function of a partition * initial mass function * inner function * integrable function * integral function * invariant function * inverse function * inverse function theorem * inverse hyperbolic function * inverse trigonometric function * inverting function * J function * Jacobian elliptic function * jump function * kei function * ker function * Koebe function * Lagrange stream function * Lagrangian function * * * Langevin function * left-continuous function * Legendre function * Leverett function * line function * linear discriminant function * linear function * Liouville function * locally integrable function * logarithmic trigonometric function * logarithmically convex function * loop transfer function * loss function * lower semicontinuous function * luminosity function * Lyapunov function * malfunction * malfunction routine * Massieu function * mathematical function program * Mathieu function * Maxwell's stress function * measurable function * membership function * meromorphic function * microspec function * minimal brain dysfunction syndrome * Minkowski distance function * * modified Bessel function * modified Hankel function * moment generating function * momentum wave function * monofunctional compound * monogenic analytic function * monotone function * monotone nondecreasing function * monotone nonincreasing function * monotonic increasing function * Morera's stress function * multifunction array radar * multilinear function * multiplicative number-theoretic function * natural function * Neumann function * nonfunctional packages software * normal density function * normalized function * normalized support function * NOT function * nuclear response function * number-theoretic function * objective function * odd function * optimizing control function * orthogonal function * orthonormal function * parabolic cylinder function * partial function * partial recursive function * particle distribution function * partition function * Patterson function * penalty function * periodic function * phase function * piecewise-continuous function * Planck function * point characteristic function * point function * Poisson density function * polynomial function * positive linear functional * positive real function * power function * predefined function * principal function * probability density function * probability mass function * programmed function key * proper rational function * propositional function * psi function * pulsed transfer function * quadratic function * Rademacher function * radial distribution function * radicofunctional name * random function * rational function * Rayleigh's dissipation function * real-valued function * recursive function * regular function * regulatory control function * restricted function * Riccati-Bessel function * Riemann function * Riemann P function * Riemann zeta function * sample function * scalar function * scattering function * * self-dual switching function * self-organizing function * sensitivity function * separated-function synchrotron * set function * sharpness function technique * shear-viscosity function * sigma function * simple function * simply periodic function * single-valued function * sinusoidal function * skewed density function * Smarandache function * source function * special function * spectral function * spherical Bessel function * staff function * step function * step-function generator * Stokes stream function * stress function * subadditive function * subadditive set function * subfunction * subfunctional * subharmonic function * subsine function * summable function * superadditive function * superharmonic function * support function * switch function * switching function * symmetric function * tapped-potentiometer function generator * test function * tetrafunctional molecule * thermionic work function * thermodynamic function of state * theta function * tool-function controller * torsion function * transcendental function * transfer function * transition function * transmission function * trigamma function * trigonometric cofunction * trigonometric function * truth function * Turing computable function * universal transmission function * universal wavelength function * upper semicontinuous function * user-defined function * variable diode function generator * vector function * viscous dissipation function * wave function * Wannier function * Weierstrass function * Weierstrassian elliptic function * weight function * work function

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to have a function
  • to carry on a function; to be in action

    • Synonyms

    * (to have a function) officiate, serve * (to carry on a function) go, operate, run, work

    Antonyms

    * (to carry on a function) malfunction

    Related terms

    * functional * dysfunction, dysfunctional