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Distinguish vs Diverge - What's the difference?

distinguish | diverge |

As verbs the difference between distinguish and diverge

is that distinguish is to see someone or something as different from others while diverge is .

distinguish

English

Verb

  • To see someone or something as different from others.
  • * {{quote-book, author=De Lacy O'Leary, title=, year=1922
  • , passage=It had begun to take a leading place even in the days of the Ptolemies, and in scientific, as distinguished from purely literary work, it had assumed a position of primary importance early in the Christian era.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}
  • To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.
  • To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
  • (obsolete) To make to differ.
  • * Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 7 (Douay version)
  • Who distinguisheth thee?

    Usage notes

    In sense “see a difference”, more casual than differentiate or the formal discriminate; more casual is “tell the difference”.

    Synonyms

    (see a difference) differentiate, discriminate

    Derived terms

    * distinguished * distinguishable * distinguishness

    Antonyms

    * (to see someone or something as different from others) confuse

    diverge

    English

    Verb

    (diverg)
  • (intransitive, literally, of lines or paths) To run apart; to separate; to tend into different directions.
  • * 1916 , :
  • Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both /
  • To become different; to run apart; to separate; to tend into different directions.
  • Both stories start out the same way, but they diverge halfway through.
  • (intransitive, literally, of a line or path) To separate, to tend into a different direction (from another line or path).
  • The sidewalk runs next to the street for a few miles, then diverges from it and turns north.
  • To become different, to separate (from another line or path).
  • The software is pretty good, except for a few cases where its behavior diverges from user expectations.
  • Not to converge: to have no limit, or no finite limit.
  • The sequence x_n = n^2 diverges to infinity: that is, it increases without bound.

    Antonyms

    * converge

    Derived terms

    * divergence * divergent

    Anagrams

    * ----