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Insist vs Assist - What's the difference?

insist | assist |

As verbs the difference between insist and assist

is that insist is to hold up a claim emphatically while assist is to stand (at a place) or to (an opinion).

As a noun assist is

a helpful action or an act of giving.

insist

English

Alternative forms

* ensist

Verb

(en verb)
  • To hold up a claim emphatically.
  • (I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To demand continually that something happen or be done.
  • To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
  • * 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis
  • Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.

    assist

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To stand (at a place) or to (an opinion).
  • A great part of the nobility assisted to his opinion.
  • (label) To attend
  • * 1967 , The Rev. Loren Gavitt (ed.), Saint Augustine's Prayer Book: A Book of Devotion for members of the Episcopal Church , revised edition, West Park, NY: Holy Cross Publications, p. 8:
  • To assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.
  • To help.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=April 15 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The referee seemed well placed to award the goal, but video evidence suggested the protests were well founded and the incident only strengthens the case of those lobbying for technology to assist officials.}}
  • (sports) To make a pass that leads directly towards scoring.
  • Derived terms

    * assister * assistive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A helpful action or an act of giving.
  • The foundation gave a much needed assist to the shelter.
  • (sports) A statistic used in different sports to quantify the act of helping another player score points or goals; in baseball, an assist is defensive, allowing a teammate to record a putout.
  • He had two assists in the game.

    Derived terms

    * assistful * assistless

    Anagrams

    * ----