Distance vs Near - What's the difference?
distance | near |
(lb) The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
:
*, chapter=5
, title= Length or interval of time.
*(Matthew Prior) (1664-1721)
*:ten years' distance between one and the other
*(John Playfair) (1748-1819)
*:the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years
The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.
:
Remoteness of place; a remote place.
*(Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
*:easily managed from a distance
* (1777-1844)
*:'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
*(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
*:[He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato.
Remoteness in succession or relation.
:
A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
*(w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
*:the horse that ran the whole field out of distance
The entire amount of progress to an objective.
:
A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.
:
*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
*:Setting them [factions] at distance , or at least distrust amongst themselves.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.
*
*:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
*:I hope your modesty / Will know what distance to the crown is due.
*(Francis Atterbury) (1663-1732)
*:'Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld.
To move away (from) someone or something.
To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
* 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 71:
Physically close.
* Dryden
Closely connected or related.
* Bible, Leviticus xviii. 12
Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; intimate; dear.
Close to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling.
So as barely to avoid or pass injury or loss; close; narrow.
(of an event) Approaching.
Approximate, almost.
(dated) Next to the driver, when he is on foot; (US) on the left of an animal or a team.
(obsolete) Immediate; direct; close; short.
* Milton
(obsolete, slang) Stingy; parsimonious.
Having a small intervening distance with regard to something.
(colloquial) nearly
* 1666 Samuel Pepys Diary and Correspondence (1867)
* 1825 David Hume, Tobias George Smollett The History of England p. 263
* 2003 Owen Parry Honor's Kingdom p. 365
* 2004 Jimmy Buffett A Salty Piece of Land p. 315, p. 35
* 2006 Juliet Marillier The Dark Mirror p. 377
Close to, in close proximity to.
* 1820 , (Mary Shelley), :
* , chapter=17
, title= * 1927 , , :
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author=
, volume=189, issue=10, page=8, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Close to in time.
As a noun near is
the left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.As an adjective near is
physically close.As an adverb near is
having a small intervening distance with regard to something.As a preposition near is
close to, in close proximity to.As a verb near is
to come closer to; to approach.distance
English
(wikipedia distance)Alternative forms
* (l) (archaic)Noun
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly,
Synonyms
*Derived terms
* aesthetic distance * angular distance * automatic distance control * braking distance * Cartesian distance * critical distance * distance formula * distance learning * distance vision * distancer * edit distance * effort distance * Euclidean distance * focal distance * go the distance * Hamming distance * horizon distance * interarch distance * interplant distance * keep at a distance * keep one's distance * Levenshtein distance * long-distance * luminosity distance * mean distance between failure * middle-distance * polar distance * resistance distance * self-distance * short-distance * skip distance * social distance * spitting distance * striking distance * string distance * taxicab distance * walking distance * zenith distanceVerb
- He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.
- Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.
Statistics
*External links
* * * ----near
English
Synonyms
* near sideAntonyms
* off sideSee also
* nearsideAdjective
(er)- He served great Hector, and was ever near , / Not with his trumpet only, but his spear.
- She is thy father's near kinswoman.
- a near friend
- a version near to the original
- a near escape
- The end is near .
- The two words are near synonyms.
- the near''' ox; the '''near leg
- the nearest way
Antonyms
* remoteDerived terms
* near abroad * near-death experience * near-Earth object * Near East * near infrared * near-minimal pair * near miss * near the knuckle * nearly * nearnessAdverb
(er)- I'm near -sighted.
- ...he hears for certain that the Queen-Mother is about and hath near finished a peace with France....
- Sir John Friend had very near completed a regiment of horse.
- Thinking about those pounds and pence, I near forgot my wound.
- "I damn near forgot." He pulled an envelope from his jacket.
- The fire was almost dead, the chamber near dark.
Derived terms
* nearsightedPreposition
(English prepositions)- He entered the inn, and asking for dinner, unbuckled his wallet, and sat down to rest himself near the door.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}
- It shied, balked, and whinnied, and in the end he could do nothing but drive it into the yard while the men used their own strength to get the heavy wagon near enough the hayloft for convenient pitching.
John Vidal
Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas, passage=Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.}}
Usage notes
Joan Maling (1983) shows that near'' is best analysed as an adjective with which the use of ''to'' is optional, rather than a preposition. It has the comparative and the superlative, and it can be followed by ''enough''. The use of ''to however is usually British.Antonyms
* far fromSee also
* (wikipedia) * para- * nighReferences
* Joan Maling (1983),Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis'', in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), ''Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles , vol.1, pp. 253-289.