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Oath vs Promise - What's the difference?

oath | promise |

As nouns the difference between oath and promise

is that oath is a solemn pledge or promise to a god, king, or another person, to attest to the truth of a statement or contract while promise is an oath or affirmation; a vow.

As verbs the difference between oath and promise

is that oath is to pledge while promise is to commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow.

oath

English

(wikipedia oath)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A solemn pledge or promise to a god, king, or another person, to attest to the truth of a statement or contract
  • * 1924 , Aristotle, Metaphysics , Translated by W. D. Ross. Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Available at: . Book 1, Part 3.
  • for they made Ocean and Tethys the parents of creation, and described the oath of the gods as being by water,
  • The affirmed statement or promise accepted as equivalent to an oath .
  • A light or insulting use of a solemn pledge or promise to a god, king or another person, to attest to the truth of a statement or contract the name of a deity in a profanity, as in swearing oaths .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths'. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "' oaths " and "swearing" itself.}}
  • A curse.
  • (legal) An affirmation of the truth of a statement.
  • Synonyms

  • pledge, vow, avowal
  • Derived terms

    * oathbound * oathbreaker * oathless * under oath

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) to pledge
  • shouting out (as in 'oathing obsenities')
  • Anagrams

    * (l)

    promise

    English

    Alternative forms

    * promyse

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An oath or affirmation; a vow.
  • A transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.
  • * 1668 July 3rd, , “Thomas Rue contra'' Andrew Hou?toun” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), pages 547–548
  • He pur?ued Andrew Hou?toun upon his promi?e , to give him the like Sallary for the next year, and in ab?ence obtained him to be holden as confe?t and Decerned.
  • Reason to expect improvement or success; potential.
  • * Washington Irving
  • My native country was full of youthful promise .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), chapter=1
  • , title=(The China Governess) citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
  • (computing, programming) A placeholder object that can be manipulated in code before it has been assigned a value.
  • (obsolete) Bestowal or fulfillment of what is promised.
  • * Bible, Acts i. 4
  • He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.

    Verb

    (promis)
  • To commit to something or action; to make an oath; make a vow.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
  • To give grounds for expectation, especially of something good.
  • The clouds promise rain.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1897, author=
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 citation , passage=I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.}}

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    *

    See also

    * (election promise)

    Statistics

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