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Chat vs Debate - What's the difference?

chat | debate |

As verbs the difference between chat and debate

is that chat is to be engaged in informal conversation while debate is to participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena.

As nouns the difference between chat and debate

is that chat is {{cx|uncountable|lang=en}} Informal conversation while debate is strife, discord.

chat

English

(wikipedia chat)

Etymology 1

Abbreviation of chatter . The bird sense refers to the sound of its call.

Verb

(chatt)
  • To be engaged in informal conversation.
  • She chatted with her friend in the cafe.
    I like to chat over a coffee with a friend.
  • To talk more than a few words.
  • I met my old friend in the street, so we chatted for a while.
  • To talk of; to discuss.
  • They chatted politics for a while.
  • To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, as if having a face-to-face conversation.
  • Do you want to chat online later?

    Noun

  • Informal conversation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=Reg liked a chat about old times and we used to go and have a chinwag in the pub.}}
  • A conversation to stop an argument or settle situations.
  • An exchange of text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, resembling a face-to-face conversation.
  • Any of various small Old World passerine birds in the subfamily Saxicolini that feed on insects.
  • Derived terms
    * backchat * chatroom * chat up * stonechat * whinchat

    Etymology 2

    Compare chit'' "small piece of paper", and ''chad''.William Safire, ''The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time , p. 43, Simon and Schuster, 2007 ISBN 1416587403.

    Noun

  • A small potato, such as is given to swine.
  • References

    Etymology 3

    Origin unknown.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Mining waste from lead and zinc mines.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 441:
  • Frank had been looking at calcite crystals for a while now [...] among the chats or zinc tailings of the Lake County mines, down here in the silver lodes of the Vita Madre and so forth.

    Etymology 4

    From .

    Alternative forms

    * chatt

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • .
  • * 1977 , Mary Emily Pearce, Apple Tree Lean Down , page 520:
  • 'Do officers have chats , then, the same as us?'
    'Not the same, no. The chats they got is bigger and better, with pips on their shoulders and Sam Browne belts.'
  • * 2007 , How Can I Sleep when the Seagull Calls? (ISBN 978-1-4357-1811-1), page 18:
  • May a thousand chats from Belgium crawl under their fingers as they write.
  • * 2013 , Graham Seal, The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War (ISBN 1137303263), page 149:
  • Trench foot'' was a nasty and potentially fatal foot disease commonly caused by these conditions, in which ''chats or body lice were the bane of all.

    Etymology 5

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l) ----

    debate

    English

    Noun

  • (obsolete) Strife, discord.
  • An argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting, often with more than two people, generally ending with a vote or other decision.
  • An informal and spirited but generally civil discussion of opposing views.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
  • (uncountable) Discussion of opposing views.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:
  • (Frequently in French form débat) A type of literary composition, taking the form of a discussion or disputation, commonly found in the vernacular medieval poetry of many European countries, as well as in .
  • Verb

    (debat)
  • (ambitransitive) To participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena.
  • * Shakespeare
  • a wise council that did debate this business
  • * Bible, Proverbs xxv. 9
  • Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.
  • * Tatler
  • He presents that great soul debating upon the subject of life and death with his intimate friends.
  • (obsolete) To fight.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
  • Well knew they both his person, sith of late / With him in bloudie armes they rashly did debate .
  • (obsolete) To engage in combat for; to strive for.
  • * Prescott
  • Volunteers thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardour in Spain as on the plains of Palestine.
  • (lb) To consider (to oneself), to think over, to attempt to decide
  • Derived terms

    * debater

    Anagrams

    * ----