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Imply vs Cannot - What's the difference?

imply | cannot |

As verbs the difference between imply and cannot

is that imply is (of a proposition) to have as a necessary consequence while cannot is not (am/is/are unable to).

As a noun cannot is

something that cannot be done.

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

    cannot

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • not (am/is/are unable to).
  • Am/are/is forbidden or not permitted to
  • * 1668 December 19, , “Mr.'' Alexander Seaton ''contra'' Menzies” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
  • The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Di?charge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extingui?h the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and con?equently of all the re?t, they being all correi debendi , lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Di?charged as to one, and ?tand as to all the re?t.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
    Usage notes
    Both the one-word form cannot' and the two-word form '''can not''' are acceptable, but '''cannot''' is more common (in the , three times as common). The two-word form is better only in a construction in which '''not is part of a set phrase, such as 'not only... but (also)': ''Paul can not only sing well, but also paint brilliantly .

    Synonyms

    * can't

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that cannot be done.
  • the cans and cannots

    Statistics

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