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.

Sere vs Wizened - What's the difference?

sere | wizened |

As a noun sere

is .

As a verb wizened is

(wizen).

As an adjective wizened is

withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.

sere

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • Without moisture.
  • * 1798 , (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) , part 5:
    • The roaring wind! it roar'd far off,
    It did not come anear;
    But with its sound it shook the sails
    That were so thin and sere .
  • * 1868 , (Henry Lonsdale), The Worthies of Cumberland , volume concerning Sir J. R. G. Graham, chapter 1, page 1:
    • …whilst the recitation of Border Minstrelsy, or a well-sung ballad, served to revive the sere and yellow leaf of age by their refreshing memories of the pleasurable past.
  • * 1984 , (Vernor Vinge), (The Peace War) , chapter 37:
    • The grass was sere and golden, the dirt beneath white and gravelly.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An intermediate stage in an ecosystem prior to advancing to the point of being a climax community.
    • Synonyms
    * seral community

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) serre

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) claw; talon
    • (Chapman)
    (Webster 1913)

    See also

    * sear

    Anagrams

    * ----

    wizened

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (wizen)

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
  • * 1816 , , Old Mortality , ch. 8:
    • "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper. . . "If it hadna been that I am mair than half a gentlewoman by my station, I wad hae tried my ten nails in the wizen'd hide o' her!"
  • * 1907 , , Before Adam , ch. 7:
    • He was old, too, wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray.
  • * 2010 May 13, , " Cannes: Best-Ever Film by a 101-Year-Old Man," Time (retrieved 5 Oct 2013):
    • In the simple fable about old age reconciling itself to memory and destiny, Mastroianni wears the wizened smile of a man who knows he is visiting his youth for the last time.