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Believe vs Realize - What's the difference?

believe | realize |

As verbs the difference between believe and realize

is that believe is (label) to accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (ie, as opposed to knowing) while realize is to make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish.

believe

English

Alternative forms

* beleeve (obsolete)

Verb

(believ)
  • (label) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing)
  • (Here, the speaker merely accepts the accuracy of the conditional.)
  • * 1611 , (King James Version of the Bible), 1:1 :
  • Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}
  • (label) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
  • (label) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
  • Usage notes

    * The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb (m) are similar but can have very different implications. ** To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news'', ''believe the lead witness . To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence. ** To “believe in” someone or something means to hold confidence and trust in that person or concept: believe in liberty'', ''believe in God . To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place trust and confidence in mankind. * Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in'' a religious text would also require affirming the truth of at least the major tenets. To ''believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's confidence and trust in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.

    Derived terms

    * believable * believability * believer * believe in * believe it or not * believe one's eyes * believe you me * disbelieve * unbelievable * unbeliever

    Statistics

    * ----

    realize

    English

    Alternative forms

    * realise (non-Oxford British spelling)

    Verb

    (realiz)
  • To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish.
  • * (rfdate) (w)
  • We realize what Archimedes had only in hypothesis, weighting a single grain against the globe of earth.
  • To become aware of a fact or situation.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • To cause to seem real; to impress upon the mind as actual; to feel vividly or strongly; to make one's own in apprehension or experience.
  • * 1887 , Sir (Arthur Conan Doyle), (A Study in Scarlet) , II:
  • That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
  • * (rfdate), (Benjamin Jowett).
  • Many coincidences . . . soon begin to appear in them [Greek inscriptions] which realize ancient history to us.
  • * (rfdate),
  • We can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment.
  • (business) To acquire as an actual possession; to obtain as the result of plans and efforts; to gain; to get
  • * (rfdate) (Macaulay)
  • Knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could by diligent thrift realize a good estate.
  • (transitive, business, finance) To convert any kind of property into money, especially property representing investments, as shares, bonds, etc.
  • * (rfdate) (Washington Irving)
  • Wary men took the alarm, and began to realize , a word now first brought into use to express the conversion of ideal property into something real.
  • (transitive, business, obsolete) To convert into real property; to make real estate of.
  • Synonyms

    * (to convert to actuality) accomplish, actualize

    Derived terms

    * realizable * realization

    References

    * * ----