Enormity vs Vast - What's the difference?
enormity | vast |
(uncountable) Extreme wickedness, nefariousness.
(countable) An act of extreme evil or wickedness.
(uncountable) Hugeness, enormousness, immenseness.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 13
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd
, work=BBC Sport
* 2007 , Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon , Blue Bridge 2008, p. 103:
Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).
Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
, author=Anna Lena Phillips
, title=Sneaky Silk Moths
, volume=100, issue=2, page=172
, magazine=(American Scientist)
(obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.
* William Shakespeare, the Life and Death of Richard the Third Act I, scene IV:
(poetic) A vast space.
* 1608': they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a '''vast , and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds. — William Shakespeare, ''The Winter's Tale , I.i
As nouns the difference between enormity and vast
is that enormity is (uncountable) extreme wickedness, nefariousness while vast is west (compass point).enormity
English
Noun
(enormities)- Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot's oppression.
citation, page= , passage=Rooney and his team-mates started ponderously, as if sensing the enormity of the occasion, but once Scholes began to link with Ryan Giggs in the middle of the park, the visitors increased the tempo with Sunderland struggling to keep up.}}
- But the enormity of Clement's vision of papal grandeur only became clear once the public rooms were completed during the years that immediately followed.
Usage notes
* Enormity'' is frequently used as a synonym for "enormousness," rather than "great wickedness." This is frequently considered an error; the words have different roots in French, and radically different accepted meanings, although both trace back to the same Latin source word, ''enormis , meaning "deviating from the norm, abnormal."vast
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- The Sahara desert is vast .
- There is a vast difference between them.
citation, passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}
- the empty, vast , and wandering air