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.

Relationship vs Contact - What's the difference?

relationship | contact |

As nouns the difference between relationship and contact

is that relationship is connection or association; the condition of being related while contact is the act of touching physically; being in close association.

As a verb contact is

to touch; to come into physical contact with.

relationship

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Connection or association; the condition of being related.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter
    • , title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.}}
  • Kinship; being related by blood or marriage.
  • A romantic or sexual involvement.
  • A way in which two or more people behave and are involved with each other
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=August 5, author=Nathan Rabin
    • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993) , passage=“I Love Lisa” opens with one of my favorite underappreciated running jokes from The Simpsons : the passive-aggressive, quietly contentious relationship of radio jocks Bill and Marty, whose mindless happy talk regularly gives way to charged exchanges that betray the simmering resentment and disappointment perpetually lingering just under the surface of their relationship .}}
  • (music) The level or degree of affinity between keys, chords and tones.

    • Derived terms

    *

    See also

    * relate * relation * relative

    contact

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of touching physically; being in close association.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • The establishment of communication (with).
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, […], he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
  • Someone with whom one is in communication.
  • (label) A contact lens.
  • (label) A device designed for repetitive connections.
  • Contact juggling.
  • (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.
    • (Raymond)

    Derived terms

    * body contact * contact hitter * contactable * eye contact * first contact * golden contact * point of contact / POC

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To touch; to come into physical contact with.
    • The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.
  • To establish communication with something or someone
    • I am trying to contact my sister.