Attenuate vs Accurate - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between attenuate and accurate

is that attenuate is gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base while accurate is in exact or careful conformity to truth; the result of care or pains; free from failure, error, or defect; exact; as, an accurate calculator; an accurate measure; accurate expression, knowledge, etc.

As a verb attenuate

is to reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.

attenuate

English

Verb

(attenuat)

To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.

* 1874 , , Far From the Madding Crowd , ch. 40:

A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.

To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.

* 1899 , , His New Mittens , ch. 4:

Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.

* 1906 , , The Malefactor , ch. 1:

Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.

To weaken.

* Coleridge

The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.

* Sir F. Palgrave

We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness.

To rarefy.

* 1901 , , The First Men in the Moon , ch. 23:

"It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly."

(medicine) To reduce the virulence of a bacteria or virus.

(electronics) To reduce the amplitude of an electrical signal.

Antonyms

* amplify (electronics)

Derived terms

* attenuation * attenuable

Adjective

(en adjective)

(botany, of leaves) Gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.

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accurate

English

Adjective

(en-adj)

In exact or careful conformity to truth; the result of care or pains; free from failure, error, or defect; exact; as, an accurate'' calculator; an ''accurate'' measure; ''accurate expression, knowledge, etc.

For more than 90% of the figures (mostly drawn during 1976-1990), either a scale, or the given magnification, will allow the user to derive accurate measurements, even when these are lacking in the diagnosis.

Deviating only slightly or within acceptable limits.

(obsolete) Precisely fixed; executed with care; careful.

* Bacon

Those conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below.

Usage notes

* We speak of a thing as correct' with reference to some rule or standard of comparison; as, a '''correct''' account, a '''correct''' likeness, a man of ' correct deportment. * We speak of a thing as accurate' with reference to the care bestowed upon its execution, and the increased correctness to be expected therefrom; as, an '''accurate''' statement, an ' accurate detail of particulars. * We speak of a thing as exact' with reference to that perfected state of a thing in which there is no defect and no redundancy; as, an '''exact''' coincidence, the '''exact''' truth, an ' exact likeness. * We speak of a thing as precise' when we think of it as strictly conformed to some rule or model, as if ''cut down'' thereto; as a '''precise''' conformity instructions; '''precisely''' right; he was very ' precise in giving his directions.

Synonyms

* correct * exact * just * nice * particular

Antonyms

* inaccurate

Derived terms

* accuracy * accurately

Anagrams

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