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Loophole vs Technicality - What's the difference?

loophole | technicality |

As nouns the difference between loophole and technicality

is that loophole is a method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect while technicality is the quality or state of being technical.

As a verb loophole

is to prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers.

loophole

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect.
  • * 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist :
  • I left him no loophole of escape, and laid bare the whole villainy which by these lights became plain as day.
  • * 2002, Two Weeks Notice (movie):
  • You have a contract that says you will work until Island Towers is finalized, which I interpret as completion of construction, or I can stop you working elsewhere. And there's no loopholes , because you drafted it and you're the best.
  • A slit in a castle wall. Later: any similar window for shooting a weapon or letting in light.
  • * 1719 , Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe :
  • ... and having a fair loophole , as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.
  • * 1809 , Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee :
  • There was a loophole in this wall, to let the light in, just at the height of a person's head, who was sitting near the chimney.
  • * 1949 , George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four , page 25:
  • The sun had shifted round, and the myriad windows of the Ministry of Truth, with the light no longer shining on them, looked grim as the loophole s of a fortress.

    Verb

    (loophol)
  • (military) To prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers
  • * {{quote-book, year=1896, author=Arthur Conan Doyle, title=The Exploits Of Brigadier Gerard, chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=The lower windows were barricaded, and the whole building loopholed for musketry fire. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=A. E. W. Mason, title=The Broken Road, chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=The doors were barricaded, the shutters closed upon the windows and loopholed , and provisions were brought in from the outhouses. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1915, author=W. H. L. Watson, title=Adventures of a Despatch Rider, chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=The Germans were loopholing it for defence. }} English words with consonant pseudo-digraphs

    technicality

    English

    Noun

    (technicalities)
  • The quality or state of being technical.
  • *
  • *:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
  • That which is technical, or peculiar to any trade, profession, sect, or the like.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * (quality or state of being technical ): technicalness