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Explore vs Prospect - What's the difference?

explore | prospect |

In intransitive terms the difference between explore and prospect

is that explore is to wander without any particular aim or purpose while prospect is to search, as for gold.

As verbs the difference between explore and prospect

is that explore is to seek for something or after someone while prospect is to search, as for gold.

As a noun prospect is

the region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.

explore

English

Verb

(explor)
  • (obsolete) To seek for something or after someone.
  • To examine or investigate something systematically.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.}}
  • To travel somewhere in search of discovery.
  • (medicine) To examine diagnostically.
  • To (seek) experience first hand.
  • To be engaged exploring in any of the above senses.
  • To wander without any particular aim or purpose.
  • *
    • They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored' wherever they were permitted to ' explore , paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

    Synonyms

    * (examine or investigate systematically) delve into, research

    Derived terms

    * explorer

    Related terms

    * exploration * explorative * exploratory

    prospect

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.
  • * Milton
    • His eye discovers unaware / The goodly prospect of some foreign land.
  • A picturesque or panoramic view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape.
  • * Evelyn
    • I went to Putney to take prospects in crayon.
  • A position affording a fine view; a lookout.
  • * 1667 , Milton, Paradise Lost
    • Him God beholding from his prospect high.
  • Relative position of the front of a building or other structure; face; relative aspect.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xl. 44
    • Their prospect was toward the south.
  • The act of looking forward; foresight; anticipation.
  • * John Locke
    • a very ill prospect of a future state
  • * Tillotson
    • Is he a prudent man as to his temporal estate, that lays designs only for a day, without any prospect to, or provision for, the remaining part of life?
  • The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.
  • *
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=And a further boost to England's qualification prospects came after the final whistle when Wales recorded a 2-1 home win over group rivals Montenegro, who Capello's men face in their final qualifier.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.}}
  • A hope; a hopeful.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 10, author=Jeremy Wilson, work=Telegraph
    • , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott. }}
  • (sports) Any player whose rights are owned by a top-level professional team, but who has yet to play a game for said team.
  • (music) The of an organ.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To search, as for gold.