Deduce vs Understand - What's the difference?
deduce | understand | Synonyms |
To reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises.
* Alexander Pope
* John Locke
* Sir Walter Scott
(obsolete) To take away; to deduct; to subtract.
(obsolete, Latinism) To lead forth.
* Selden
(lb) To be aware of the meaning of.
:
:
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:I understand not what you mean by this.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=
, volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To believe, based on information.
:
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=Foreword To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.
:
:In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:
::
*(John Locke) (1632-1705)
*:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.
*
*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
To stand under; to support.
:(Shakespeare)
Deduce is a synonym of understand.
As verbs the difference between deduce and understand
is that deduce is to reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic to given premises while understand is (lb) to be aware of the meaning of.deduce
English
Verb
- O goddess, say, shall I deduce my rhymes / From the dire nation in its early times?
- Reasoning is nothing but the faculty of deducing unknown truths from principles already known.
- See what regard will be paid to the pedigree which deduces your descent from kings and conquerors.
- to deduce a part from the whole
- (Ben Jonson)
- He should hither deduce a colony.
Usage notes
For example, from the premises "all good people believe in the tooth fairy" and "Jimmy does not believe in the tooth fairy", we deduce the conclusion "Jimmy is not a good person". This particular form of deduction is called a syllogism. Note that in this case we reach a false conclusion by correct deduction from a false premise.Antonyms
* (reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic)Synonyms
* (reach a conclusion by applying rules of logic)Anagrams
* * ----understand
English
Alternative forms
* understaund (obsolete)Verb
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.}}
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.
