Nuance vs Connotation - What's the difference?
nuance | connotation |
A minor distinction.
Subtlety or fine detail.
* 1901: Alpheus Spring Packard,
A meaning of a word or phrase that is suggested or implied, as opposed to a denotation, or literal meaning. A characteristic of words or phrases, or of the contexts that words and phrases are used in.
A technical term in logic used by J. S. Mill and later logicians to refer to the attribute or aggregate of attributes connoted by a term, and contrasted with denotation .
As nouns the difference between nuance and connotation
is that nuance is a minor distinction while connotation is a meaning of a word or phrase that is suggested or implied, as opposed to a denotation, or literal meaning. A characteristic of words or phrases, or of the contexts that words and phrases are used in.nuance
English
Noun
(en noun)- Understanding the basics is easy; appreciating the nuances takes years.
Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution
- ...the richer our collections become, the more numerous are the proofs that all is more or less shaded (nuance ), that the remarkable differences become obliterated...
Derived terms
* nuancedconnotation
English
Noun
(en noun)- The connotations of the phrase "you are a dog" are that you are physically unattractive or morally reprehensible, not that you are a canine.
- The two expressions "the morning star" and "the evening star" have different connotations but the same denotation (i.e. the planet Venus).