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Pursue vs Persist - What's the difference?

pursue | persist |

As verbs the difference between pursue and persist

is that pursue is to follow with harmful intent; to try to harm, to persecute, torment while persist is to go on stubbornly or resolutely.

pursue

English

Verb

(pursu)
  • (obsolete) To follow with harmful intent; to try to harm, to persecute, torment.
  • To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase.
  • * Wyclif Bible, John xv. 20
  • The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have pursued' me, they shall ' pursue you also.
  • * 2009 , Martin Chulov, ‘Iraqi shoe-thrower claims he suffered torture in jail’, The Guardian , 15 Sep 09:
  • He now feared for his life, and believed US intelligence agents would pursue him.
  • To follow, travel down (a particular way, course of action etc.).
  • Her rival pursued a quite different course.
  • To aim for, go after (a specified objective, situation etc.).
  • * 2009 , Benjamin Pogrund, ‘Freeze won't hurt Netanyahu’, The Guardian , 1 Dec 09:
  • He even stands to gain in world terms: his noisy critics strengthen his projected image of a man determined to pursue peace with Palestinians.
  • To participate in (an activity, business etc.); to practise, follow (a profession).
  • See also

    * follow * chase

    persist

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To go on stubbornly or resolutely.
  • To repeat an utterance.
  • To continue to exist.
  • (computing) To cause to persist; make permanent.
  • * 2006 , Marco Bellinaso, ASP.NET 2.0 Website Programming
  • This would not be saved after his session terminates because we don't have an actual user identity to allow us to persist the settings.
  • * 2009 , Alistair Croll, Sean Power, Complete Web Monitoring
  • While hashtags aren't formally part of Twitter, some clients, such as Tweetdeck, will persist hashtags across replies to create a sort of message threading.

    Synonyms

    * (go on stubbornly or resolutely) persevere, see also * (continue to exist) last, remain

    Derived terms

    * persistence / persistency * persistent

    See also

    (cognate terms using -sist) * absist * assist * consist * desist * exist * insist * resist * subsist

    Anagrams

    *