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Realize vs Obtain - What's the difference?

realize | obtain | Related terms |

Obtain is a synonym of realize.



In transitive terms the difference between realize and obtain

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 obtain is to get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way.

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

    * * ----

    obtain

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XVIII:
  • And a certayne ruler axed him: sayinge: Goode Master: what ought I to do, to obtaine eternall lyfe?
  • * 1814 , (Jane Austen), (Mansfield Park) :
  • Julia was quite as eager for novelty and pleasure as Maria, though she might not have struggled through so much to obtain them, and could better bear a subordinate situation.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained .}}
  • (obsolete) To secure (that) a specific objective or state of affairs be reached.
  • * 1722 , (Daniel Defoe), (Colonel Jack) :
  • he was condemned to die for the felony, and being so well known for an old offender, had certainly died, but the merchant, upon his earnest application, had obtained that he should be transported, on condition that he restored all the rest of his bills, which he had done accordingly.
  • (obsolete) To prevail, be victorious; to succeed.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.2:
  • “O daughter deare!” (said she) “despeire no whit; / For never sore but might a salve obtain [...].”
  • * 1701 , (Jonathan Swift), Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome :
  • This, though it failed at present, yet afterward obtained , and was a mighty step to the ruin of the commonwealth.
  • (obsolete) To hold; to keep, possess or occupy.
  • * 1671 , (John Milton), (Paradise Regained) , Book I:
  • His mother then is mortal, but his Sire / He who obtains the monarchy of Heav'n, / And what will he not do to advance his Son?
  • To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force.
  • * 1908 , (Jack London), (The Iron Heel) , ,
  • Even though the Pervaise confession had never come to light, no reasonable doubt could obtain ; for the act in question was on a par with countless other acts committed by the oligarchs, and, before them, by the capitalists.
  • * 1992 , (Neal Stephenson), (Snow Crash) , Bantam Spectra, p. 460,
  • But the hostage situation no longer obtains , and so Uncle Enzo feels it important to stop Rife now,