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Obviate vs Negate - What's the difference?

obviate | negate |

As verbs the difference between obviate and negate

is that obviate is to bypass a requirement or make it unnecessary; to avoid a future problem or difficult situation while negate is to deny the existence, evidence, or truth of; to contradict.

obviate

English

Verb

(obviat)
  • To bypass a requirement or make it unnecessary; to avoid a future problem or difficult situation.
  • They saved enough money for their purchase and obviated the need to borrow.
  • * 1826', Richard Reece, ''A Practical Dissertation on the Means of '''Obviating & Treating the Varieties of Costiveness , page 181:
  • A mild dose of a warm active aperient to obviate costiveness, or to produce two motions daily, is generally very beneficial.
  • * 2004 , David J. Anderson, Agile Management for Software Engineering , page 180:
  • Some change requests, rather than extend the scope, obviate some of the existing scope of a project.
  • * 2008 , William S. Kroger, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis: In Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology , page 163:
  • Thus, to obviate resistance, the discussion should be relevant to the patient?s problems.

    negate

    English

    Verb

    (negat)
  • To deny the existence, evidence, or truth of; to contradict.
  • The investigation tending to negate any supernatural influences.
  • To nullify or cause to be ineffective.
  • Progress on the study has been negated by the lack of funds.
  • To be negative; bring or cause negative results.
  • a pessimism that always negates
  • (computing) To perform the NOT operation on.