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.

Dazzle vs Awe - What's the difference?

dazzle | awe |

In transitive terms the difference between dazzle and awe

is that dazzle is to confuse the sight of by means of excessive brightness while awe is to control by inspiring dread.

dazzle

English

Verb

(dazzl)
  • To confuse the sight of by means of excessive brightness.
  • Dazzled by the headlights of the lorry, the deer stopped in the middle of the street.
  • * Milton
  • Those heavenly shapes / Will dazzle now the earthly, with their blaze / Insufferably bright.
  • * Sir H. Taylor
  • An unreflected light did never yet / Dazzle the vision feminine.
  • (figuratively) To render incapable of thinking clearly; to overwhelm with showiness or brilliance.
  • The delegates were dazzled by the originality of his arguments.
  • To be overpowered by light; to be confused by excess of brightness.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • An overlight maketh the eyes dazzle .
  • * Dryden
  • I dare not trust these eyes; / They dance in mists, and dazzle with surprise.

    Derived terms

    * dazzler * dazzlement

    Noun

    (s)
  • A light of dazzling brilliancy.
  • (uncommon) A herd of zebra.
  • * 1958', Laurens Van der Post, ''The lost world of the Kalahari: with the great and the little memory'' (' 1998 David Coulson edition):
  • We were trying to stalk a dazzle of zebra which flashed in and out of a long strip of green and yellow fever trees, with an ostrich, its feathers flared like a ballet skirt around its dancing legs, on their flank, when suddenly
  • * 2009 , Darren Paul Shearer, In You God Trusts , page 176:
  • Zebras move in herds which are known as "dazzles." When a lion approaches a dazzle of zebras during its hunt,
  • * 2010 , Douglas Rogers, The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa , page 22:
  • I reached the lodge as a dazzle of zebras trotted across the dirt road into thorny scrub by the game fence, and a lone kudu gazed up at me from the short grass near the swimming pool.

    Synonyms

    * herd

    awe

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • A feeling of fear and reverence.
  • A feeling of amazement.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
  • For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=Anna Lena Phillips , title=Sneaky Silk Moths , volume=100, issue=2, page=172 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}

    Derived terms

    * awe-inspiring * awesome * awestruck * awful

    Verb

    (aw)
  • To inspire fear and reverence in.
  • * '>citation
  • To control by inspiring dread.
  • Synonyms

    * (inspire reverence) enthral, enthrall; overwhelm

    Derived terms

    * awed * awesome * awe-inspiring * awful