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Learn vs Useful - What's the difference?

learn | useful |

As a verb learn

is to acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something or learn can be .

As an adjective useful is

having a practical or beneficial use.

learn

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) lernen, from (etyl) . Compare (etyl) lernen.

Verb

  • To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something.
  • To attend a course or other educational activity.
  • * 1719 ,
  • For, as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to learn.
  • To gain knowledge from a bad experience.
  • learn from one's mistakes
  • To be studying.
  • To come to know; to become informed of; to find out.
  • He just learned that he will be sacked.
    Usage notes
    * See other, dated and regional, sense of below.
    Synonyms
    * (l)
    Antonyms
    * (l) * (l)
    Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Compare Dutch leren, German (m).

    Verb

  • *:
  • *:And whan she had serched hym / she fond in the bottome of his wound that therin was poyson / And soo she heled hym/ and therfore Tramtrist cast grete loue to la beale Isoud / for she was at that tyme the fairest mayde and lady of the worlde / And there Tramtryst lerned her to harpe / and she beganne to haue grete fantasye vnto hym
  • *1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) ,
  • *:Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.
  • *circa 1611 , (William Shakespeare), (Cymbeline), :
  • *:Have I not been / Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn’d me how / To make perfumes?
  • *1993 , The Simpsons , (18 Feb. 1993) Lisa's thoughts:
  • *:That'll learn him to bust my tomater.
  • Usage notes
    Now often considered non-standard.
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    References

    * * * Family Word Finder Readers Digest Association Inc. NY 1975

    useful

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a practical or beneficial use.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}

    Usage notes

    * Prepositions: useful'' is used in ''useful for '', ''useful for '' and ''useful to ''. The words ''useful to'' are also found in construction such as ''It is useful to do'', in which ''to marks an infinitive rather than being a preposition.

    Synonyms

    * noteful * serviceable * utilitarian

    Antonyms

    * unuseful * useless * harmful