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Shadow vs Substance - What's the difference?

shadow | substance |

As nouns the difference between shadow and substance

is that shadow is a dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object while substance is physical matter; material.

As a verb shadow

is to block light or radio transmission.

shadow

English

(wikipedia shadow)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • Relative darkness, especially as caused by the interruption of light; gloom, obscurity.
  • * Denham
    • Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise.
  • * Spenser
    • In secret shadow from the sunny ray, / On a sweet bed of lilies softly laid.
  • (obsolete) A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • That which looms as though a shadow.
  • *
    • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow' cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose ' shadow falls over us all.
  • A small degree; a shade.
  • * Bible, James i. 17
    • no variableness, neither shadow of turning
  • An imperfect and faint representation.
    • He came back from war the shadow of a man.
  • * Bible, Hebrews x. 1
    • the law having a shadow of good things to come
  • * Milton
    • [types] and shadows of that destined seed
  • One who secretly or furtively follows another.
  • * Milton
    • Sin and her shadow Death
  • A type of lettering form of word processors that makes a cubic effect.
  • An influence, especially a pervasive or a negative one.
  • *
  • A spirit; a ghost; a shade.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hence, horrible shadow !
  • (obsolete, Latinism) An uninvited guest accompanying one who was invited.
    • (Nares)

    Usage notes

    * A person (or object) is said to "cast", "have", or "throw" a shadow if that shadow is caused by the person (either literally, by eclipsing a light source, or figuratively). The shadow may then be described as the shadow "cast" or "thrown" by the person, or as the shadow "of" the person, or simply as the person's shadow.

    Derived terms

    * backshadowing * foreshadowing * rain shadow * shadow acting * shadow boxing * shadow cabinet * shadow government * shadow minister * shadow play * shadow price * sideshadowing * unshadow

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To block light or radio transmission.
    • Looks like that cloud's going to shadow us.
  • (espionage) To secretly or discreetly track or follow another, to keep under surveillance.
  • To accompany a professional during the working day, so as to learn about an occupation one intends to take up.
  • (programming) To make an identifier, usually a variable, inaccessible by declaring another of the same name within the scope of the first.
  • (computing) To apply the shadowing process to (the contents of ROM).

    • Derived terms

    * overshadow

    substance

    English

    (wikipedia substance)

    Alternative forms

    * substaunce (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Physical matter; material.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances , which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}
  • The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
    • Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance , not the appearance, chose.
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
  • * (Edmund Burke) (1729-1797)
    • It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.
  • Substantiality; solidity; firmness.
  • Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
  • * Bible, (w) xv. 13
    • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Thy substance , valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
    • We are destroying many thousand lives, and exhausting our substance , but not for our own interest.
  • Drugs (illegal narcotics)
  • (theology) Hypostasis.

    • Related terms

    * subsist * substantial * substantive

    See also

    * style 1000 English basic words ----