What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Contend vs Pose - What's the difference?

contend | pose |

As a verb contend

is to strive in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.

As an adjective pose is

(heraldry|of a beast) standing still, with all the feet on the ground.

contend

English

(Webster 1913)

Verb

(en verb)
  • to strive in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy ii. 9
  • The Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle.
  • * Shakespeare
  • For never two such kingdoms did contend without much fall of blood.
  • to struggle or exert one's self to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend.
  • * Dryden
  • You sit above, and see vain men below / Contend for what you only can bestow.
  • to strive in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue.
  • * John Locke
  • The question which our author would contend for.
  • * Dr H. More
  • Many things he fiercely contended about were trivial.

    Synonyms

    * struggle, fight, combat, vie, strive, oppose, emulate, contest, litigate, dispute, debate

    pose

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) pose, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) common cold, head cold; catarrh
  • * 1586 , W. Harrison
  • Now have we many chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) posen, from (etyl) ; influenced by (etyl) ponere.

    Verb

    (pos)
  • To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect.
  • To pose a model for a picture.
  • Ask; set (a test, quiz, riddle, etc.).
  • To constitute (a danger, a threat, a risk, etc.).
  • * 2010 , Noam Chomsky, The Iranian threat , Z Magazine, vol 23, number 7:
  • Rather, they are concerned with the threat Iran poses to the region and the world.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Bulgaria 0-3 England , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any consequence.}}
  • * 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
  • The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad: in one characteristically slick and chilling Isis video – entitled “a message to the Jordanian tyrant” – a smiling, long-haired young man in black pats the explosive belt round his waist as he burns his passport and his fellow fighters praise the memory of Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.
  • Assume or maintain a pose; strike an attitude.
  • * Thackeray
  • He posed before her as a hero.
  • (obsolete) To interrogate; to question.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • She posed him and sifted him.
  • (obsolete) To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.
  • * Barrow
  • A question wherewith a learned Pharisee thought to pose and puzzle him.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Position, posture, arrangement (especially of the human body).
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway,
  • Affectation.
  • Derived terms
    * posable

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) posen, a combination of aphetic forms of (etyl) aposen and opposen. More at appose, oppose.

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (pos)
  • (obsolete) To ask (someone) questions; to interrogate.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke II:
  • And hit fortuned that after .iii. dayes, they founde hym in the temple sittinge in the middes of the doctours, both hearynge them, and posinge them.
  • to puzzle, non-plus, or embarrass with difficult questions.
  • To perplex or confuse (someone).
  • Derived terms
    * poser