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Simplify vs Encumber - What's the difference?

simplify | encumber |

In lang=en terms the difference between simplify and encumber

is that simplify is to make simpler, either by reducing in complexity, reducing to component parts, or making easier to understand while encumber is to add a legal claim or other obligation.

As verbs the difference between simplify and encumber

is that simplify is to make simpler, either by reducing in complexity, reducing to component parts, or making easier to understand while encumber is to load down something with a burden.

simplify

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To make simpler, either by reducing in complexity, reducing to component parts, or making easier to understand.
  • To become simpler.
  • * 2006 , Karen Oslund, “Reading Backwards: Language Politics and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia”, in David L. Hoyt and Karen Oslund (editors), The Study of Language and the Politics of Community in Global Context , Lexington Books, ISBN 978-0-7391-0955-7, page 126:
  • Thus, throughout the nineteenth century, linguists generally held that more grammatically complex languages were older and that languages tended to simplify over time—the four grammatical cases of German as contrasted with the seven of Latin, for example.

    Derived terms

    * oversimplify * simplification * simplifier English ergative verbs

    encumber

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to load down something with a burden
  • to restrict or block something with a hindrance or impediment
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1906 – 1921 , author= , title= , volume=1 , chapter=Encounter , passage=He [Timothy Forsyte] had never committed the imprudence of marrying or encumbering himself in any way with children.}}
  • to add a legal claim or other obligation
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * disencumber, unload, unencumber

    Derived terms

    * encumbrance * encumbrous