Consider vs Explain - What's the difference?
consider | explain |
(label) To think about seriously.
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-03-15, volume=410, issue=8878, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) To think of doing.
(label) To assign some quality to.
* (1800-1859)
*
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=2 * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=Foreword (label) To look at attentively.
* Bible, (w) xxxi. 16
(label) To take up as an example.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=
, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To debate or dispose of a motion.
To have regard to; to take into view or account; to pay due attention to; to respect.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (1628–1699)
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106
, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
As verbs the difference between consider and explain
is that consider is to think about seriously while explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.consider
English
Alternative forms
* considre (archaic)Verb
(en verb)- Thenceforth to speculations high or deep / I turned my thoughts, and with capacious mind / Considered all things visible.
Turn it off, passage=If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets, […]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.}}
- Considered as plays, his works are absurd.
citation, passage=Mother very rightly resented the slightest hint of condescension. She considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom,
citation, passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. […]’}}
- She considereth a field, and buyeth it.
Sam Leith
Where the profound meets the profane, passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.}}
- Consider , sir, the chance of war: the day / Was yours by accident.
- England could grow into a posture of being more united at home, and more considered abroad.
Usage notes
* In sense 2, this is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See .Synonyms
* (think about seriously) bethink, reflect on * (think of doing) think of, bethink * (assign a quality) deem, regard, think of; see also * (look at closely) regard, observe * (debate a motion) deliberate, bethink * (include in an estimate or plan) take into accountexplain
English
(Explanation)Verb
(en verb)- The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .
Pixels or Perish, passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
Fantasy of navigation, passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
- The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.
