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What is the difference between realize and achieve?

realize | achieve | Synonyms |

Achieve is a synonym of realize.



In transitive terms the difference between realize and achieve

is that realize is to cause to seem real; to impress upon the mind as actual; to feel vividly or strongly; to make one's own in apprehension or experience while achieve is to obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.

realize

English

Alternative forms

* realise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Verb

(realiz)
  • To make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish.
  • * (rfdate) (w)
  • We realize what Archimedes had only in hypothesis, weighting a single grain against the globe of earth.
  • To become aware of a fact or situation.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • To cause to seem real; to impress upon the mind as actual; to feel vividly or strongly; to make one's own in apprehension or experience.
  • * 1887 , Sir (Arthur Conan Doyle), (A Study in Scarlet) , II:
  • That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
  • * (rfdate), (Benjamin Jowett).
  • Many coincidences . . . soon begin to appear in them [Greek inscriptions] which realize ancient history to us.
  • * (rfdate),
  • We can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment.
  • (business) To acquire as an actual possession; to obtain as the result of plans and efforts; to gain; to get
  • * (rfdate) (Macaulay)
  • Knighthood was not beyond the reach of any man who could by diligent thrift realize a good estate.
  • (transitive, business, finance) To convert any kind of property into money, especially property representing investments, as shares, bonds, etc.
  • * (rfdate) (Washington Irving)
  • Wary men took the alarm, and began to realize , a word now first brought into use to express the conversion of ideal property into something real.
  • (transitive, business, obsolete) To convert into real property; to make real estate of.
  • Synonyms

    * (to convert to actuality) accomplish, actualize

    Derived terms

    * realizable * realization

    References

    * * ----

    achieve

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete )

    Verb

    (achiev)
  • To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance.
  • To carry out successfully; to accomplish.
  • * I. Taylor
  • Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.
  • (obsolete) To conclude, finish, especially successfully.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.1:
  • Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve [...].
  • To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2013, date=January 22, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
  • , title= Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4) , passage=Bradford may have lost on the night but they stubbornly protected a 3-1 first-leg advantage to emulate a feat last achieved by Rochdale in 1962.}}
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night), II-v
  • Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
  • *
  • Thou hast achieved our liberty.
  • (obsolete) To conclude, to turn out.
  • * Prior
  • Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved .
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Othello), II-i
  • He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

    Synonyms

    * accomplish, effect, fulfil, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain. See accomplish

    Derived terms

    * achievement * achiever