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Pragmatic vs Pugilistic - What's the difference?

pragmatic | pugilistic |

As adjectives the difference between pragmatic and pugilistic

is that pragmatic is practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory while pugilistic is in the manner of a pugilist.

pragmatic

English

Alternative forms

* pragmatick (archaic) * pragmatique (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
  • * The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic , but unattractive.
  • *
  • Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic'' in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the ''heed''-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like:
    (61)      !That man will eat any car which thinks he?s stupid
    which is purely ''pragmatic
    (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesn?t happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars don?t think, and people don?t eat cars).
  • philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
  • Pragmatic history.
  • * M. Arnold
  • Pragmatic poetry.

    Synonyms

    * (practical) down-to-earth, functional, practical, utilitarian, realistic

    Antonyms

    * idealistic

    Derived terms

    * pragma * pragmatically * pragmaticism * pragmatics

    pugilistic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • in the manner of a pugilist
  • * 1898 , , (The War of the Worlds) , 1962 ed., (Penguin Books), p. 101
  • It was no time for pugilistic chivalry, and my brother laid him quiet with a kick, and gripped the collar of the man who pulled at the slender lady's arm.
  • fighting with the fists
  • Derived terms

    * pugilistically