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Opinion vs Policy - What's the difference?

opinion | policy |

As nouns the difference between opinion and policy

is that opinion is opinion while policy is (obsolete) the art of governance; political science or policy can be a contract of insurance.

As a verb policy is

to regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

opinion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A belief that a person has formed about a topic or issue.
    • I would like to know your opinions on the new systems.
    In my opinion , white chocolate is better than milk chocolate.
    Every man is a fool in some man's opinion .
    Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. -
  • The judgment or sentiment which the mind forms of persons or things; estimation.
  • * 1606 , , I. vii. 32:
    • I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people.
  • * South
    • Friendship gives a man a peculiar right and claim to the good opinion of his friend.
  • (obsolete) Favorable estimation; hence, consideration; reputation; fame; public sentiment or esteem.
  • * 1597 , , V. iv. 47:
    • Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion .
  • * Milton
    • This gained Agricola much opinion , who enterprises.
  • (obsolete) Obstinacy in holding to one's belief or impression; opiniativeness; conceitedness.
  • * 1590 , , V. i. 5:
    • Your reasons at / dinner have been sharp and sententious, pleasant / without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious / without impudency, learned without opinion , and / strange without heresy.
  • The formal decision, or expression of views, of a judge, an umpire, a doctor, or other party officially called upon to consider and decide upon a matter or point submitted.
  • (European Union law) a judicial opinion delivered by an Advocate General to the European Court of Justice where he or she proposes a legal solution to the cases for which the court is responsible

    • Derived terms

    * advisory opinion * be of the opinion * in my humble opinion/IMHO * in my opinion * in one's opinion * opinion poll * public opinion * scientific opinion * second opinion

    Related terms

    * opination * opine * opinionated

    See also

    * fact

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To have or express as an opinion.
  • * 1658', But if (as some '''opinion ) King ''Ahasuerus'' were ''Artaxerxes Mnemon'' [...], our magnified ''Cyrus'' was his second Brother — Sir Thomas Browne, ''The Graden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 166)

    • Statistics

    * ----

    policy

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) policie, from . Compare police.

    Noun

    (policies)
  • (obsolete) The art of governance; political science.
  • * a. 1616 , (William Shakespeare), Henry V , I.1:
    • List his discourse of Warre; and you shall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Musique. / Turne him to any Cause of Pollicy , / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnloose, / Familiar as his Garter
  • (obsolete) A state; a polity.
  • (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.
  • (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.
  • * a. 1594 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus :
    • 'Tis pollicie , and stratageme must doe / That you affect, and so must you resolue, / That what you cannot as you would atcheiue, / You must perforce accomplish as you may.
  • A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body.
    • The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
  • Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 140:
    • These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you
  • * Fuller
    • The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.
  • (now, rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.25:
    • Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy , is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.
  • (Scotland, now, chiefly, in the plural) The grounds of a large country house.
  • * 1955 , (Robin Jenkins), The Cone-Gatherers , Canongate 2012, page 36:
    • Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.
  • (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
    • What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?
    Derived terms
    * policied * policymaker * policy shift * endowment policy * fiscal policy * honesty is the best policy * monetary policy * policy mix

    Verb

  • To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Policying of cities.''

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) police, from (etyl) polizza, from

    Noun

    (policies)
  • A contract of insurance
  • * Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
  • (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural )
  • A number pool lottery
    • Synonyms
    * (number pool) policy racket
    Derived terms
    * policyholder

    External links

    * (wikipedia)