What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Refine vs Complete - What's the difference?

refine | complete |

As verbs the difference between refine and complete

is that refine is to reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify while complete is to finish; to make done; to reach the end.

As an adjective complete is

with all parts included; with nothing missing; full.

refine

English

Verb

(refin)
  • To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.
  • To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish.
  • To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
  • To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
  • To affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    complete

    English

    Alternative forms

    * compleat (archaic)

    Verb

    (complet)
  • To finish; to make done; to reach the end.
  • He completed the assignment on time.
  • To make whole or entire.
  • The last chapter completes the book nicely.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Synonyms

    * accomplish * finish

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • With all parts included; with nothing missing; full.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author= , title=Well-connected Brains , volume=100, issue=2, page=171 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Creating a complete map of the human connectome would therefore be a monumental milestone but not the end of the journey to understanding how our brains work.}}
  • Finished; ended; concluded; completed.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete . The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.}}
  • (Generic intensifier).
  • (analysis, Of a metric space) in which every Cauchy sequence converges.
  • (algebra, Of a lattice) in which every set with a lower bound has a greatest lower bound.
  • (math, Of a category) in which all small limits exist.
  • (logic, of a proof system of a formal system)   With respect to a given semantics, that any well-formed formula which is (semantically) valid must also be provable.Sainsbury, Mark [2001] Logical Forms : An Introduction to Philosophical Logic . Blackwell Publishing, Hong Kong (2010), p. 358.
  • * Gödel's first incompleteness theorem showed that Principia'' could not be both consistent and complete. According to the theorem, for every sufficiently powerful logical system (such as ''Principia''), there exists a statement ''G'' that essentially reads, "The statement ''G'' cannot be proved." Such a statement is a sort of Catch-22: if ''G'' is provable, then it is false, and the system is therefore inconsistent; and if ''G is not provable, then it is true, and the system is therefore incomplete.(w)
  • Synonyms

    * (with everything included) entire, total * (finished) done

    Antonyms

    * incomplete

    Derived terms

    * bicomplete * cocomplete * completeness * completist * completely * completion

    References

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----