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Attenuate vs Extend - What's the difference?

attenuate | extend | Related terms |

Attenuate is a related term of extend.


In lang=en terms the difference between attenuate and extend

is that attenuate is to rarefy while extend is to straighten (a limb).

As verbs the difference between attenuate and extend

is that attenuate is to reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree while extend is to increase in extent.

As an adjective attenuate

is (botany|of leaves) gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.

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.
  • ----

    extend

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To increase in extent.
  • To possess a certain extent.
  • To cause to increase in extent.
  • To cause to last for a longer period of time.
  • To straighten (a limb).
  • To bestow; to offer; to impart; to apply.
  • to extend sympathy to the suffering
  • To increase in quantity by weakening or adulterating additions.
  • to extend liquors
  • (UK, legal) To value, as lands taken by a writ of extent in satisfaction of a debt; to assign by writ of extent.
  • Synonyms

    * enlarge * expand * increase * lengthen * stretch * widen

    Derived terms

    * extendible (adjective) * extensible (adjective) * extensive (adjective) * extension * extent

    Anagrams

    *