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What is the difference between implication and imply?

implication | imply | Related terms |

Imply is a related term of implication.



As a noun implication

is the act of implicating.

As a verb imply is

to have as a necessary consequence.

implication

English

Noun

  • (uncountable) The act of implicating.
  • (uncountable) The state of being implicated.
  • (countable) An implying, or that which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words.
  • * 2011 , Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology (page 168)
  • But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.
  • (countable, logic) The connective in propositional calculus that, when joining two predicates A and B in that order, has the meaning "if A is true, then B is true".
  • Derived terms

    * material implication * strict implication

    imply

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (of a proposition) to have as a necessary consequence
  • The proposition that "all dogs are mammals" implies that my dog is a mammal
  • (of a person) to suggest by logical inference
  • When I state that your dog is brown, I am not implying that all dogs are brown
  • (of a person or proposition) to hint; to insinuate; to suggest tacitly and avoid a direct statement
  • What do you mean "we need to be more careful with hygiene"? Are you implying that I don't wash my hands?
  • (archaic) to enfold, entangle.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.iv:
  • And in his bosome secretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall sting implyes .

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Synonyms

    * (to have as a necessary consequence) entail * (to suggest tacitly) allude, hint, insinuate, suggest

    See also

    * connotation * entail