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Disability vs Absence - What's the difference?

disability | absence |

As nouns the difference between disability and absence

is that disability is state of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like while absence is a state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship; the period of being away .

disability

Noun

(en-noun)
  • State of being disabled; deprivation or want of ability; absence of competent physical, intellectual, or moral power, means, fitness, and the like.
  • * (rfdate),
  • Grossest faults, or disabilities to perform what was covenanted.
  • * (rfdate),
  • Chatham refused to see him, pleading his disability .
  • Want of legal qualification to do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency.
  • * (rfdate), .
  • The disabilities of idiocy, infancy, and coverture.
  • (uncountable, informal) Regular payments received by a disabled person, usually from the state
  • I had to go on disability after the accident.
    Did you get your disability this month?

    Usage notes

    * Disability and inability: Inability is an inherent want of power to perform the thing in question; disability arises from some deprivation or loss of the needed competency. One who becomes deranged is under a disability of holding his estate; and one who is made a judge, of deciding in his own case. A man may decline an office on account of his inability to discharge its duties; he may refuse to accept a trust or employment on account of some disability prevents him from entering into such engagements.

    Synonyms

    * disqualification * impotence * inability * incapacity * incompetency * incompetence * weakness

    Antonyms

    * ability * capacity * competence * competency * potence * potential * qualification * strength

    absence

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship; the period of being away.
  • * (rfdate) (w) 2:12
  • Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence .
  • Failure to be present where one is expected, wanted, or needed; nonattendance; deficiency.
  • * (rfdate) - Kent
  • In the absence of conventional law.
  • Lack; deficiency; nonexistence.
  • Inattention to things present; abstraction (of mind).
  • * (rfdate), (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • Reflecting on the little absences and distractions of mankind.
  • * 1824-1829? , (w), (Imaginary Conversations)
  • To conquer that abstraction which is called absence .
  • (medical) Temporary loss or disruption of consciousness, with sudden onset and recovery, and common in epilepsy.
  • (fencing) Lack of contact between blades.
  • Derived terms

    * absence makes the heart grow fonder

    Antonyms

    * (state of being away) presence * existence, possession, sufficiency

    References

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