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Determine vs Describe - What's the difference?

determine | describe |

As verbs the difference between determine and describe

is that determine is while describe is (label) to represent in words.

determine

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Verb

(determin)
  • To set the limits of.
  • * Bible, Acts xvii. 26
  • [God] hath determined the times before appointed.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • The knowledge of men hitherto hath been determined by the view or sight.
  • To ascertain definitely; to figure out.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine . The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.}}
  • To fix the form or character of; to shape; to prescribe imperatively; to regulate; to settle.
  • * J. Edwards
  • The character of the soul is determined by the character of its God.
  • * W. Black
  • something divinely beautiful that at some time or other might influence or even determine her course of life
  • To fix the course of; to impel and direct; with a remoter object preceded by to .
  • Someone else's will determined me to this course.
  • To bring to a conclusion, as a question or controversy; to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide.
  • The court has determined the cause.
  • To resolve on; to have a fixed intention of; also, to cause to come to a conclusion or decision; to lead.
  • The news of his father's illness determined him to depart immediately.
  • (logic) To define or limit by adding a differentia.
  • (obsolete) To bring to an end; to finish.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Now, where is he that will not stay so long / Till his friend sickness hath determined me?

    Derived terms

    {{der3, determinant , determination , determiner , determinism , determinist , overdetermine , underdetermine}}

    describe

    English

    Verb

    (describ)
  • (label) To represent in words.
  • * November 2 2014 , Daniel Taylor, " Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United," guardian.co.uk
  • Yet the truth is that City would probably have been coasting by that point if the referee, Michael Oliver, had not turned down three separate penalties, at least two of which could be accurately described as certainties.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=
  • (label) To represent by drawing; to draw a plan of; to delineate; to trace or mark out.
  • * 1826 , (James Fenimore Cooper), (The Last of the Mohicans)
  • Uncas described an arc in the water with his own blade, and as the canoe passed swiftly on, Chingachgook recovered his paddle, and flourishing it on high, he gave the war-whoop of the Mohicans.
  • To give rise to a geometrical structure.
  • To reveal a new species by scientifically explaining its characteristics and particularly how it differs from other species.
  • (label) To distribute into parts, groups, or classes; to mark off; to class.
  • * Bible, (w) xviii. 9
  • Passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book.

    Synonyms

    * (to represent in words) portray, betell, depict, report * (to represent in writing) bewrite