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Signify vs Utter - What's the difference?

signify | utter | Synonyms |

Signify is a synonym of utter.


As verbs the difference between signify and utter

is that signify is to give (something) a meaning or an importance while utter is to say.

As an adjective utter is

.

As an adverb utter is

(label) further out; further away, outside.

signify

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To give (something) a meaning or an importance.
  • To show one’s intentions with a sign etc.
  • * (rfdate) (William Shakespeare)
    • I'll to the king; and signify to him / That thus I have resign'd my charge to you.
  • * (rfdate) (Jonathan Swift)
    • The government should signify to the Protestants of Ireland that want of silver is not to be remedied.
  • To mean; to betoken.
  • * (rfdate) (William Shakespeare)
    • A tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    utter

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ; compare (outer).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • * Chapman
    • By him a shirt and utter mantle laid.
  • * Spenser
    • As doth an hidden moth / The inner garment fret, not th' utter touch.
  • * Milton
    • Through utter and through middle darkness borne.
  • (obsolete) Outward.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXIII:
    • Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.10:
    • So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came .
  • Absolute, unconditional, total, complete.
    • utter''' ruin; '''utter darkness
  • * Atterbury
    • They are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1920 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light were utter . }}
    Synonyms
    * see also
    Derived terms
    * utterly * utterness * uttermost

    Etymology 2

    Partly from (out) (adverb/verb), partly from (etyl) uteren.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To say
    • Don't you utter another word!
  • To use the voice
    • Sally uttered a sigh of relief.
    The dog uttered a growling bark.
  • To make speech sounds which may or may not have an actual language involved
    • Sally is uttering some fairly strange things in her illness.
  • *
  • To make (a noise)
    • Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
  • (legal) To put counterfeit money, etc. , into circulation
    • Derived terms
    * utterance * utterer * utterless * utterable

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Further out; further away, outside.
  • *, Bk.VII, Ch.v:
  • *:So whan he com nyghe to hir, she bade hym ryde uttir —‘for thou smellyst all of the kychyn.’
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