Precise vs Precious - What's the difference?
precise | precious |
Exact, accurate.
*
(sciences) Of experimental results, consistent, clustered close together, agreeing with each other. This does not mean that they cluster near the true, correct, or accurate value.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author=(Polly Toynbee)
, volume=189, issue=10, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Regarded with love or tenderness.
(pejorative) Treated with too much reverence.
(pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 24, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club
, title= Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
* J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
* 1909 , Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
As adjectives the difference between precise and precious
is that precise is exact, accurate while precious is of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.As a noun precious is
someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.As an adverb precious is
Used as an intensifier.As a proper noun Precious is
{{surname|from=nicknames|lang=en}}, originating as a male or female nickname.precise
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)Snakes and ladders, passage=Risk is everywhere.
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* inexact, imprecise * (consistent) inconsistent, varyingDerived terms
* prissyAnagrams
* ----precious
English
Alternative forms
* pretious (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)Britain's booming birthrate, passage=People are a good thing, the most precious resource in a rich economy, so the progressive-minded feel. Only misanthropists disagree or the dottier Malthusians who send green-ink tweets deploring any state assistance for child-rearing.}}
Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3, passage=In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.}}
Synonyms
* (of high value) dear, valuable * (contrived to charm) saccharine, syrupy, tweeNoun
(es)- “It isn't fair, my precious , is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
- She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses ?"
Adverb
(-)- There is precious little we can do.