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Defective vs Abnormal - What's the difference?

defective | abnormal |

As adjectives the difference between defective and abnormal

is that defective is while abnormal is not conforming to rule or system; deviating from the usual or normal type .

As a noun abnormal is

a person or object that is not normal.

defective

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Having one or more defects.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
    • , author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= citation , passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}
  • lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.

    • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "defective" is often applied: merchandise, goods, part, component, product, equipment, gene, unit, construction, design, drug, memory, wiring, machine, device, instrument, hardware, software, vehicle.

    Synonyms

    * faulty

    Related terms

    * defect * defection * defector * deficiency * deficient * deficit

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person considered to be defective.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2007, date=January 15, author=Bernard E. Harcourt, title=The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=There were many more kinds of mental institutions at mid-century, ones for “mental defectives and epileptics” and the mentally retarded, psychiatric wards in veterans hospitals, as well as “psychopathic” and private mental hospitals. }}

    See also

    *

    abnormal

    English

    Alternative forms

    * anormal * (obsolete) abnormous

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not conforming to rule or system; deviating from the usual or normal type.
  • * 1899 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), A Duet , ch. 6:
    • And then after an abnormal meal, which was either a very late breakfast or a very early lunch, they drove on to Victoria Station.
  • Of or pertaining to that which is abnormal, in particular, behaviour that deviates from norms of social propriety or accepted standards of mental health.
  • * 1904 , (Jack London), The Sea Wolf , ch. 23:
    • Furuseth was right; I was abnormal , an "emotionless monster," a strange bookish creature, capable of pleasuring in sensations only of the mind.

    Synonyms

    * aberrant, anomalous, atypical, exceptional, extraordinary, irregular, odd, strange, unusual.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person or object that is not normal.

    • References

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