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Except vs Allow - What's the difference?

except | allow |

In transitive terms the difference between except and allow

is that except is to exclude; to specify as being an exception while allow is to render physically possible.

In intransitive terms the difference between except and allow

is that except is to take exception, to object (to or against) while allow is to acknowledge or concede.

As a preposition except

is with the exception of; but.

As a conjunction except

is with the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

except

English

Alternative forms

* excepte (rare or archaic)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
  • * 2007 , Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, page 17:
  • But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.
  • To take exception, to object (to' or ' against ).
  • to except to a witness or his testimony
  • * Shakespeare
  • Except thou wilt except against my love.
  • *, vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312:
  • Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].
  • * 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial , Penguin 2005, page 23:
  • The Athenians'' might fairly except against the practise of ''Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 96:
  • he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • With the exception of; but.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}

    Synonyms

    * apart from * bar * but * other than * save

    Derived terms

    * except for * except for opinion

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • With the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.."
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother
  • (lb) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
  • *1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) IX:
  • *:And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.
  • *1621 , (Robert Burton), (The Anatomy of Melancholy) , New York 2001, p.106:
  • *:Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.
  • Statistics

    *

    allow

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.
  • * 2004 , Constance Garnett (translator), Anton Chekhov (Russian author), “Ariadne”, in The Darling: and Other Stories :
  • he needed a great deal of money, but his uncle only allowed him two thousand roubles a year, which was not enough, and for days together he would run about Moscow with his tongue out, as the saying is.
  • To acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion.
  • * 1855 , (William Makepeace Thackeray), (The Newcomes)
  • I allow , with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conductwas highly reprehensible.
  • To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.
  • To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
  • *
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get
  • To not bar or obstruct.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
  • To acknowledge or concede.
  • * 2000 , (George RR Martin), A Storm of Swords , Bantam (2011), page 154:
  • Half the night passed before the wench allowed that it might be safe to stop.
  • To take into account by making an allowance.
  • When calculating a budget for a construction project, always allow for contingencies.
  • To render physically possible.
  • * 1824 , (Washington Irving), :
  • The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a boat secretly and at night to the very foot of the hill.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • (obsolete) To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction.
  • * Bible, Luke xi. 48
  • Ye allow the deeds of your fathers.
  • * Fuller
  • We commend his pains, condemn his pride, allow his life, approve his learning.
  • (obsolete) To sanction; to invest; to entrust.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thou shalt be allowed with absolute power.
  • (obsolete) To like; to be suited or pleased with.
  • * Massinger
  • How allow you the model of these clothes?

    Synonyms

    * allot, assign, bestow, concede, admit, let, permit, suffer, tolerate

    Derived terms

    * allowance * allowable

    References

    *

    Statistics

    * English control verbs