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Detail vs Example - What's the difference?

detail | example |

As nouns the difference between detail and example

is that detail is something small enough to escape casual notice while example is something that is representative of all such things in a group.

As verbs the difference between detail and example

is that detail is to explain in detail while example is to be illustrated or exemplified (by).

detail

English

Noun

  • (countable) Something small enough to escape casual notice.
  • (uncountable) A profusion of details.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail , a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.}}
  • Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
  • (countable) A person's name, address and other personal information.
  • (military) A temporary unit or assignment.
  • A part distinct from the whole.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
  • A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
  • Synonyms

    * (something considered trivial enough to ignore) technicality, trifle, triviality * (personal information) particulars * contingent, detachment

    Derived terms

    * in detail * detail-oriented

    See also

    * overview * bird's-eye view * big picture

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to explain in detail
  • I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
  • * 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
  • It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.
  • (US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ()
  • We need to have the minivan detailed .
  • (military) to assign to a particular task
  • Derived terms

    * detailing

    Synonyms

    * (to explain in detail) specify * detach

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----

    example

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that is representative of all such things in a group.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
  • Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
  • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).
  • * Bible, (w) xiii, 15
  • For I have given you an example , that ye should do as I have done to you.
  • * (John Milton)
  • I gave, thou sayest, the example ; I led the way.
  • * 1818 , (Mary Shelley), :
  • Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.
  • A person punished as a warning to others.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Hang him; he'll be made an example .
  • * Bible, x, 6
  • Now these things were our examples , to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
  • A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Such temperate order in so fierce a cause / Doth want example .
  • An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule.
  • Synonyms

    * See also * See also

    Derived terms

    * for example * make an example of * proof by example * set an example

    See also

    * exemplar * model * pattern * quotation * template

    Verb

    (exampl)
  • To be illustrated or exemplified (by).
  • Statistics

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