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.

Shock vs Altercation - What's the difference?

shock | altercation | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between shock and altercation

is that shock is sudden, heavy impact while altercation is warm contention in words; dispute carried on with heat or anger; controversy; wrangle; wordy contest.

As a verb shock

is to cause to be emotionally shocked.

shock

English

(wikipedia shock)

Alternative forms

* choque (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . More at (l).

Noun

(en noun)
  • Sudden, heavy impact.
  • The train hit the buffers with a great shock .
  • # (figuratively) Something so surprising that it is stunning.
  • # Electric shock, a sudden burst of electric energy, hitting an animate animal such as a human.
  • # Circulatory shock, a life-threatening medical emergency characterized by the inability of the circulatory system to supply enough oxygen to meet tissue requirements.
  • # A sudden or violent mental or emotional disturbance
  • (mathematics) A discontinuity arising in the solution of a partial differential equation.
  • Derived terms
    * bow shock * culture shock * economic shock * electric shock * shock absorber * shock jock * shock mount * shock rock * shock site * shock therapy * shock wave, shockwave * shocker * shocking pink * shockproof * shockumentary * shockvertising * supply shock * technology shock * termination shock * toxic shock syndrome
    Synonyms
    See

    References

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to be emotionally shocked.
  • The disaster shocked the world.
  • To give an electric shock.
  • (obsolete) To meet with a shock; to meet in violent encounter.
  • * De Quincey
  • They saw the moment approach when the two parties would shock together.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An arrangement of sheaves for drying, a stook.
  • * Tusser
  • Cause it on shocks to be by and by set.
  • * Thomson
  • Behind the master walks, builds up the shocks .
  • (commerce, dated) A lot consisting of sixty pieces; a term applied in some Baltic ports to loose goods.
  • (by extension) A tuft or bunch of something (e.g. hair, grass)
  • a head covered with a shock of sandy hair
  • (obsolete, by comparison) A small dog with long shaggy hair, especially a poodle or spitz; a shaggy lapdog.
  • * 1827 Thomas Carlyle, The Fair-Haired Eckbert
  • When I read of witty persons, I could not figure them but like the little shock (translating the German Spitz).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To collect, or make up, into a shock or shocks; to stook.
  • to shock rye

    Anagrams

    * ----

    altercation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Warm contention in words; dispute carried on with heat or anger; controversy; wrangle; wordy contest.
  • * (rfdate), Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear
  • "What the hell is it to you who are my friends?" roared McMurdo in a voice which brought every head in the carriage round to witness the altercation .

    Synonyms

    * dispute, wrangle