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Assume vs Prove - What's the difference?

assume | prove |

As verbs the difference between assume and prove

is that assume is to authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof while prove is to demonstrate that something is true or viable; to give proof for.

assume

English

Verb

(assum)
  • To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.}}
  • To take on a position, duty or form.
  • :
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:Trembling they stand while Jove assumes the throne.
  • *
  • *:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=August 5, author=(Nathan Rabin)
  • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993) , passage=So while Ralph generally seems to inhabit a different, more glorious and joyful universe than everyone else here his yearning and heartbreak are eminently relateable. Ralph sometimes appears to be a magically demented sprite who has assumed the form of a boy, but he’s never been more poignantly, nakedly, movingly human than he is here.}}
  • To take on in appearance; to adopt (a feigned attribute, etc.).
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
  • *(Beilby Porteus) (1731-1809)
  • *:ambition assuming the mask of religion
  • To receive or adopt.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:The sixth was a young knight of lesser renown and lower rank, assumed into that honorable company.
  • To adopt an idea or cause.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Anagrams

    * ----

    prove

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) proven, from (etyl) . More at (l), (l), (l).

    Alternative forms

    * proove

    Verb

  • To demonstrate that something is true or viable; to give proof for.
  • {{quote-Fanny Hill, part=3 , Mr. H …, whom no distinctions of that sort seemed to disturb, scarce gave himself or me breathing time from the last encounter, but, as if he had task'd himself to prove that the appearances of his vigour were not signs hung out in vain, in a few minutes he was in a condition for renewing the onset}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=August 5, author=Nathan Rabin
  • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993) , passage=Valentine’s Day means different things for different people. For Homer, it means forking over a hundred dollars for a dusty box of chocolates at the Kwik-E-Mart after characteristically forgetting the holiday yet again. For Ned, it’s another opportunity to prove his love for his wife. Most germane to the episode, for Lisa, Valentine’s Day means being the only person in her entire class to give Ralph a Valentine after noticing him looking crestfallen and alone at his desk.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove , and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
  • To turn out; to manifest.
  • (copulative) To turn out to be.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 5, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool , passage=He met Luis Suarez's cross at the far post, only for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to show brilliant reflexes to deflect his header on to the bar. Carroll turned away to lead Liverpool's insistent protests that the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and assistant referee Andrew Garratt waved play on, with even a succession of replays proving inconclusive.}}
  • To put to the test, to make trial of.
  • To ascertain or establish the genuineness or validity of; to verify.
  • to prove a will
  • (archaic) To experience
  • * Spenser
  • Where she, captived long, great woes did prove .
  • (printing, dated, transitive) To take a trial impression of; to take a proof of.
  • to prove a page
    Derived terms
    * disprovability * disprovable, disprovably * disprove * disproved, disproven * exception that proves the rule * provability * provable * provably * prove out * prover * proving ground * unprovability * unprovable * unprovably * unprove * unproved * unproven

    Etymology 2

    Simple past form of proove, conjugated in the Germanic strong declension, on the pattern of choose ? chose.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (proove)
  • Statistics

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