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Detail vs Precision - What's the difference?

detail | precision |

As nouns the difference between detail and precision

is that detail is detail while precision is precision.

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 ----

    precision

    English

    (wikipedia precision)

    Noun

  • The state of being precise or exact; exactness.
  • The ability of a measurement to be reproduced consistently.
  • (mathematics) The number of significant digits to which a value may be measured reliably.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Used for exact or precise measurement.
  • Made, or characterized by accuracy.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=John Sinnott , title=Aston Villa 2 - 0 Wigan , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But there was nothing he could do about Villa's second when Agbonlahor crossed from the left and Bent finished with a precision volley.}}