What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Impose vs Impress - What's the difference?

impose | impress |

In transitive terms the difference between impose and impress

is that impose is to establish or apply by authority while impress is to seize or confiscate (property) by force.

In intransitive terms the difference between impose and impress

is that impose is to be an inconvenience while impress is to make an impression, to be impressive.

As a noun impress is

the act of impressing.

impose

English

Verb

(impos)
  • To establish or apply by authority.
  • * Milton
  • Death is the penalty imposed .
    Congress imposed new tariffs.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  • Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
  • to be an inconvenience
  • I don't wish to impose upon you.
  • to enforce: compel to behave in a certain way
  • Social relations impose courtesy
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Arindam Rej , title=Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Norwich soon began imposing themselves on that patched-up defence with Holt having their best early chance, only to see it blocked by Simpson.}}
  • To practice a trick or deception.
  • To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
  • To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.
  • Derived terms

    * imposition * superimpose * imposure

    impress

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.}}
  • To make an impression, to be impressive.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, title=Moldova 0-5 England
  • , work=BBC Sport citation , passage=Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority.}}
  • To produce a vivid impression of (something).
  • To mark or stamp (something) using pressure.
  • * Shakespeare
  • his heart, like an agate, with your print impressed
  • To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).
  • (figurative) To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate.
  • * I. Watts
  • Impress the motives of persuasion upon our own hearts till we feel the force of them.
  • To compel (someone) to serve in a military force.
  • To seize or confiscate (property) by force.
  • * Evelyn
  • the second five thousand pounds impressed for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners

    Synonyms

    * make an impression on * cut a figure * (produce a vivid impression of) * imprint, print, stamp * : pressgang * : confiscate, impound, seize, sequester

    Noun

    (es)
  • The act of impressing.
  • An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
  • * Shakespeare
  • This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice.
  • * 1908 , Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans , Norton 2005, p. 1330:
  • We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held
  • A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
  • An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
  • * 2007 , John Burrow, A History of Histories , Penguin 2009, p. 187:
  • Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible
  • Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
  • (South)
  • A heraldic device; an impresa.
  • (Cussans)
  • * Milton
  • To describe emblazoned shields, / Impresses quaint.
  • The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Why such impress of shipwrights?