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Exert vs Extort - What's the difference?

exert | extort |

As verbs the difference between exert and extort

is that exert is to put in vigorous action while extort is to wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of a debt.

exert

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To put in vigorous action.
  • To make use of, to apply, especially of something non-material.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=18 April, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 1-0 Barcelona , passage=Di Matteo clearly saw Drogba's power as a potential threat to a Barcelona defence stripped of Gerard Pique - but he barely caught sight of goal in a first 45 minutes in which the Catalans exerted their technical superiority.}}

    extort

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of a debt.
  • (legal) To obtain by means of the offense of extortion.
  • (transitive, and, intransitive, medicine, ophthalmology) To twist outwards.
  • Derived terms

    * extortion * extortionate * extortionist

    See also

    * intort