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Pile vs Heap - What's the difference?

pile | heap |

Heap is a synonym of pile.



In transitive terms the difference between pile and heap

is that pile is (of vehicles) To create a hold-up while heap is to supply in great quantity.

pile

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) . Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
  • The head of an arrow or spear.
  • A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1719
    • , edition=10th edition , year_published=1864 , author= , title= , chapter= , section=Chapter VI citation , page=68 , passage=All this time I worked very hard [...] and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.}}
  • (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
    • Derived terms
    * pile bridge * pile cap * pile driver * pile dwelling * pile engine * pile plank * pneumatic pile * screw pile

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To drive s into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

    • Etymology 2

    Apparently from pilus.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually in plural) A hemorrhoid.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) pile, (pille), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1889
    • , author= , title= , volume_plain=Book II: The Fall of Harmachis , section=Chapter XI citation , isbn=1555211224 , page= , passage=I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.}}
  • (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
    • When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile''', and the annoying guy on the "no" '''pile .
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=December 29 , author=Keith Jackson , title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , work=Daily Record citation , page= , passage=And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.}}
  • A mass formed in layers.
    • a pile of shot
  • A funeral pile; a pyre.
    • (Dryden)
  • A large building, or mass of buildings.
  • * Dryden
    • The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
  • * 1817 , (Walter Scott), Rob Roy , II.2:
    • The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture
  • * Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
    • It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor
  • A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
  • A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; — commonly called Volta’s pile, voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
  • (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
  • (figuratively) A list or league
  • * '>citation
    • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (pil)
  • To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate; to amass; — often with up; as, to pile up wood.
  • To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
  • * {{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. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To add something to a great number.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC
    • , title= Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool , passage=But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages. }}
  • (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
  • (military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.

    • Related terms

    * funeral pile * pile bridge * pile driver * pile cap * pile on * pile up

    Etymology 4

    Partly from (etyl) pil (a variant of peil, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
  • The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
  • * (William Cowper)
    • Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile .

    Anagrams

    * English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    heap

    English

    (wikipedia heap)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • a heap of vassals and slaves
  • * W. Black
    • He had heaps of friends.
  • A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.
    • a heap of earth or stones
  • * Dryden
    • Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.
  • A great number or large quantity of things.
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • a vast heap , both of places of scripture and quotations
  • * Robert Louis Stevenson
    • I have noticed a heap of things in my life.
  • (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 9 , author=Jonathan Wilson , title=Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Every break seemed dangerous and Falcao clearly had the beating of Amorebieta. Others, being forced to stretch a foot behind them to control Arda Turan's 34th-minute cross, might simply have lashed a shot on the turn; Falcao, though, twisted back on to his left foot, leaving Amorebieta in a heap , and thumped in an inevitable finish – his 12th goal in 15 European matches this season.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (heap)
  • To pile in a heap.
    • He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.
  • To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
  • * 1819 , , Otho the Great , Act I, scene II, verses 40-42
    • Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring
    News of that vanished Arabian,
    A full-heap’d helmet of the purest gold.
  • To supply in great quantity.
    • They heaped praise upon their newest hero.

    Derived terms

    * heap up

    Anagrams

    * * * ----