Detail vs Intricate - What's the difference?
detail | intricate |
(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= 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= A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
to explain in detail
* 2014 , Ian Black, "
(US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ()
(military) to assign to a particular task
Having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.
:
*(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
*:His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness.
*
*:As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”
To become enmeshed or entangled.
* 1864 October 18, J.E. Freund, “
To enmesh or entangle: to cause to intricate.
* 1994 December 12, , “
As verbs the difference between detail and intricate
is that detail is to explain in detail while intricate is to become enmeshed or entangled.As a noun detail
is (countable) something small enough to escape casual notice.As a adjective intricate is
having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.detail
English
Noun
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.}}
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.}}
Synonyms
* (something considered trivial enough to ignore) technicality, trifle, triviality * (personal information) particulars * contingent, detachmentDerived terms
* in detail * detail-orientedSee also
* overview * bird's-eye view * big pictureVerb
(en verb)- I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
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.
- We need to have the minivan detailed .
Derived terms
* detailingSynonyms
* (to explain in detail) specify * detachAnagrams
* * English heteronyms ----intricate
English
Alternative forms
* entricateEtymology 1
From (etyl) intricatus'' (past participle of ''intricare ).Adjective
(en adjective)Etymology 2
As the adjective; or by analogy with extricateVerb
(intricat)How to Avoid the Use of Lint”, letter to the editor, in The New York Times (1864 October 23):
- washes off easily, without sticking or intricating into the wound.
Avoid Dunkirk II” (essay), in The New York Times :
- But the British and French won't hear of that; they want to get their troops extricated and our ground troops intricated .
