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Desire vs Intention - What's the difference?

desire | intention |

Intention is a synonym of desire.



As nouns the difference between desire and intention

is that desire is someone or something wished for while intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow.

As a verb desire

is to want; to wish for earnestly.

desire

English

Verb

(desir)
  • To want; to wish for earnestly.
  • * Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24
    • Neither shall any man desire thy land.
  • * Tennyson
    • Ye desire your child to live.
  • To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XIII:
    • And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
  • *
    • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired .}}
  • To want emotionally or sexually.
  • To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28
    • Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?
  • * Shakespeare
    • Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.
  • To require; to demand; to claim.
  • * Spenser
    • A doleful case desires a doleful song.
  • To miss; to regret.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (countable) Someone or something wished for.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
  • (uncountable) Motivation.
  • (uncountable) The feeling of desire.

    • Synonyms

    * (one or thing wished for) wanna, want-to * (motivation) wanna, want-to

    See also

    * velleity

    Related terms

    * desirable * desirous

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs

    intention

    English

    (wikipedia intention)

    Alternative forms

    * entention (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A course of action that a person intends to follow.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see Apocryhpha )
  • *:Hell is paved with good intentions .
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
  • The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
  • :
  • (lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
  • *, I.iii.3:
  • *:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  • A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
  • (lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  • *1732 , (John Arbuthnot), An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments … , Prop. II, p.159:
  • *:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
  • (lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  • (lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
  • *2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health , p.49:
  • *:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    * intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentioned

    Related terms

    * intend * intent * well-intended