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 Levy - What's the difference?

impose | levy |

As verbs the difference between impose and levy

is that impose is to establish or apply by authority while levy is to impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property.

As a noun levy is

the act of levying.

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

    levy

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) leve'', from (etyl) ''levee'', from ''lever "to raise".

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property
  • to levy a tax
  • To raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority.
  • * Shakespeare
  • If they do this my ransom, then, / Will soon be levied .
  • To draft someone into military service
  • To raise; to collect; said of troops, to form into an army by enrolment, conscription. etc.
  • * Fuller
  • Augustine inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them.
  • To wage war
  • To raise, as a siege.
  • (Holland)
  • (legal) To erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up.
  • to levy a mill, dike, ditch, a nuisance, etc.
    (Cowell)

    Noun

    (levies)
  • The act of levying.
  • * Thirlwall
  • A levy of all the men left under sixty.
  • The tax, property or people so levied.
  • * Macaulay
  • The Irish levies .

    Etymology 2

    Contraction of elevenpence.

    Noun

    (levies)
  • (US, obsolete, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) The Spanish real of one eighth of a dollar, valued at elevenpence when the dollar was rated at seven shillings and sixpence.
  • See also

    * levee * Levi ----