What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Detail vs Outline - What's the difference?

detail | outline |

In transitive terms the difference between detail and outline

is that detail is (US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ({{IPA|[ˈdi(ː)teɪɫ]|lang=en}} while outline is to summarize something.

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 ----

    outline

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A line marking the boundary of an object figure.
  • The outer shape of an object or figure.
  • A sketch or drawing in which objects are delineated in contours without shading.
  • * Dryden
    • Painters, by their outlines , colours, lights, and shadows, represent the same in their pictures.
  • A general description of some subject.
  • A statement summarizing the important points of a text.
  • A preliminary plan for a project.
    • the outline of a speech
  • (film industry) A prose telling of a story intended to be turned into a screenplay; generally longer and more detailed than a treatment.

    • See also

    * silhouette

    Verb

    (outlin)
  • (lb) To draw an outline of something.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.}}
  • (lb) To summarize something.
  • :
  • *
  • *:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

    • Anagrams

    * *