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.

Decision vs Intention - What's the difference?

decision | intention |

As nouns the difference between decision and intention

is that decision is a choice or judgement while intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow.

As a verb decision

is to defeat an opponent by a decision of the judges, rather than by a knockout.

decision

English

Noun

  • A choice or judgement.
  • * {{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.}}
  • (uncountable) Firmness of conviction.
  • (chiefly combat sports) A result arrived at by the judges when there is no clear winner at the end of the contest.
  • (baseball) A win or a loss awarded to a pitcher.
  • Usage notes

    * (choice or judgment) Most often, to decide something is to make a decision; however, other possibilities exist as well. Many verbs used with destination or conclusion, such as reach, (term), and (term) can also be used with (term); these serve to emphasize that the decision is the result of deliberation. Finally, some varieties of English prefer to take a decision rather than make one. * See for uses and meaning of decision collocated with these words. * Adjectives often applied to "decision": important, difficult, big, tough, bad, informed, easy, personal, smart, poor, good, quick, major, strategic, wise, serious, hard, stupid, hasty, responsible, complex, prudent, deliberate, significant, collective, delayed, challenging, careful, foolish, small, rash, thoughtful, slow, clever, forced, uninformed.

    Derived terms

    * decisioning * decision making * decision tree * decision problem * decision procedure * decision theory * indecision

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (boxing) To defeat an opponent by a decision of the judges, rather than by a knockout
  • intention

    Alternative forms

    * entention (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A course of action that a person intends to follow.
  • :
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see Apocryhpha )
  • *:Hell is paved with good intentions .
  • *
  • *:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
  • The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
  • :
  • (lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
  • *, I.iii.3:
  • *:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  • A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
  • (lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  • *1732 , (John Arbuthnot), An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments … , Prop. II, p.159:
  • *:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
  • (lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  • (lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
  • *2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health , p.49:
  • *:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    * intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentioned