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Contract vs Contact - What's the difference?

contract | contact |

In informal terms the difference between contract and contact

is that contract is an order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone while contact is a contact lens.

In transitive terms the difference between contract and contact

is that contract is to gain or acquire (an illness) while contact is to establish communication with something or someone.

As nouns the difference between contract and contact

is that contract is an agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement while contact is the act of touching physically; being in close association.

As verbs the difference between contract and contact

is that contract is to draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen while contact is to touch; to come into physical contact with.

As an adjective contract

is contracted; affianced; betrothed.

contract

English

(wikipedia contract)

Etymology 1

From (etyl), from (etyl) contract, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of .

Noun

(en noun)
  • An agreement between two or more parties, to perform a specific job or work order, often temporary or of fixed duration and usually governed by a written agreement.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
    • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • (legal) An agreement which the law will enforce in some way. A legally binding contract must contain at least one promise, i.e., a commitment or offer, by an offeror to and accepted by an offeree to do something in the future. A contract is thus executory rather than executed.
  • (legal) A part of legal studies dealing with laws and jurisdiction related to contracts.
  • (informal) An order, usually given to a hired assassin, to kill someone.
  • (bridge) The declarer's undertaking to win the number of tricks bid with a stated suit as trump.
    • Hypernyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) agreement
    Hyponyms
    * (agreement that is legally binding) bailment
    Derived terms
    * contractual * fixed-term contract * contract of employment

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) Not abstract; concrete.
  • * Robert Recorde, , 1557:
    • But now in eche kinde of these, there are certaine nombers named Ab?tracte'': and other called nombers ''Contracte .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) contracter, from (etyl) contractum, past participle of . the verb developed after the noun, and originally meant only "draw together"; the sense "make a contract with" developed later.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To draw together or nearer; to shorten, narrow, or lessen.
    • The snail's body contracted into its shell.
    to contract one's sphere of action
  • * Wordsworth
    • Years contracting to a moment.
  • * Dr. H. More
    • In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties.
  • (grammar) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
    • The word "cannot" is often contracted into "can't".
  • To enter into a contract with. (rfex)
  • To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
  • * Hakluyt
    • We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and league with the aforesaid queen.
  • * Strype
    • Many persons prohibited by law.
  • To make an agreement or contract; to covenant; to agree; to bargain.
    • to contract for carrying the mail
  • To bring on; to incur; to acquire.
    • She contracted the habit of smoking in her teens.
    to contract a debt
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Each from each contract new strength and light.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Such behaviour we contract by having much conversed with persons of high stature.
  • To gain or acquire (an illness).
  • * 1999 , Davidson C. Umeh, Protect Your Life: A Health Handbook for Law Enforcement Professionals (page 69)
    • An officer contracted hepatitis B and died after handling the blood-soaked clothing of a homicide victim
  • To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To betroth; to affiance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The truth is, she and I, long since contracted , / Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
    Synonyms
    * (lessen) abate, decrease, lessen, reduce * (shorten) shorten, shrink * catch, get
    Antonyms
    * (lessen) increase, expand * (shorten) grow, lengthen

    contact

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of touching physically; being in close association.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • The establishment of communication (with).
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, […], he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
  • Someone with whom one is in communication.
  • (label) A contact lens.
  • (label) A device designed for repetitive connections.
  • Contact juggling.
  • (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.
    • (Raymond)

    Derived terms

    * body contact * contact hitter * contactable * eye contact * first contact * golden contact * point of contact / POC

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To touch; to come into physical contact with.
    • The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.
  • To establish communication with something or someone
    • I am trying to contact my sister.