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.

Spread vs Exchange - What's the difference?

spread | exchange |

In lang=en terms the difference between spread and exchange

is that spread is to cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter while exchange is to replace with, as a substitute.

As verbs the difference between spread and exchange

is that spread is to stretch out, open out (a material etc) so that it more fully covers a given area of space while exchange is to trade or barter.

As nouns the difference between spread and exchange

is that spread is the act of spreading or something that has been spread while exchange is an act of exchanging or trading.

spread

English

Verb

  • To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.
  • To extend (individual rays, limbs etc.); to stretch out in varying or opposing directions.
  • To disperse, to scatter or distribute over a given area.
  • To proliferate; to become more widely present, to be disseminated.
  • *
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
  • To disseminate; to cause to proliferate, to make (something) widely known or present.
  • To take up a larger area or space; to expand, be extended.
  • To smear, to distribute in a thin layer.
  • To cover (something) with a thin layer of some substance, as of butter.
  • To prepare; to set and furnish with provisions.
  • to spread a table
  • * Tennyson
  • Boiled the flesh, and spread the board.
  • (slang) To open one’s legs.
  • * 1984 , (Martin Amis), :
  • This often sounds like the rap of a demented DJ: the way she moves has got to be good news, can't get loose till I feel the juice— suck and spread , bitch, yeah bounce for me baby.
  • * 1991 , (Tori Amos), (Me and a Gun) :
  • Yes I wore a slinky red thing. Does that mean I should spread for you, your friends, your father, Mr Ed?
  • * 2003 , (Outkast), "Spread" (from the album ):
  • I don't want to move too fast, but / Can't resist your sexy ass / Just spread', ' spread for me; / (I can't, I can't wait to get you home)

    Synonyms

    * disseminate * circulate * propagate * put about

    Derived terms

    * spread betting

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of spreading or something that has been spread.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • No flower hath spread like that of the woodbine.
  • An expanse of land.
  • * Addison
  • I have got a fine spread of improvable land.
  • A large tract of land used to raise livestock; a cattle ranch.
  • * 2005 , , 00:11:50:
  • - Can’t wait till I get my own spread and won’t have to put up with Joe Aguirre’s crap no more.
    - I’m savin’ for a place myself.
  • A piece of material used as a cover (such as a bedspread).
  • A large meal, especially one laid out on a table.
  • Any form of food designed to be spread such as butters or jams
  • An item in a newspaper or magazine that occupies more than one column or page.
  • A numerical difference.
  • (business, economics) The difference between the wholesale and retail prices.
  • (trading, economics, finance) The difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity.
  • (trading, finance) The purchase of a futures contract of one delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity.
  • (trading, finance) The purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity.
  • (trading) An arbitrage transaction of the same commodity in two markets, executed to take advantage of a profit from price discrepancies.
  • (trading) The difference between bidding and asking price.
  • (finance) The difference between the prices of two similar items.
  • (geometry) An unlimited expanse of discontinuous points.
  • Synonyms

    * straddle

    Statistics

    *

    exchange

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) eschaunge, from (etyl) eschaunge, from (etyl) eschange (whence modern French ). Spelling later changed on the basis of ex- in English.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of exchanging or trading.
  • All in all, it was an even exchange .
    an exchange of cattle for grain
  • A place for conducting trading.
  • The stock exchange is open for trading.
  • A telephone exchange.
  • (telephony, US only? ) The fourth through sixth digits of a ten-digit phone number (the first three before the introduction of area codes).
  • The 555 exchange is reserved for use by the phone company, which is why it's often used in films.
    NPA-NXX-1234 is standard format, where NPA is the area code and NXX is the exchange .
  • A conversation.
  • After an exchange with the manager, we were no wiser.
  • * 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
  • “Why bother with the daily grind when you can go to Mosul, get paid $400 a month, get a wife – and live an Islamic way,” went an exchange between two men overheard by a fellow passenger in a taxi. Rumour has it that a woman whose husband died fighting with Isis now receives a generous widow’s pension from jihadi coffers.
  • (chess) The loss of one piece and associated capture of another
  • # The loss of a relatively minor piece (typically a bishop or knight) and associated capture of the more advantageous rook
  • (obsolete) The thing given or received in return; especially, a publication exchanged for another.
  • (Shakespeare)
    Derived terms
    * bet exchange * bill of exchange * exchange rate * foreign exchange * foreign exchange market * ion exchange * ion exchange chromatography * ion exchange resin * key exchange * link exchange * local exchange carrier * means of exchange * medium of exchange * private branch exchange * stock exchange * telephone exchange

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) eschaungen, from (etyl) eschaungier, eschanger, from the (etyl) verb eschangier, ).

    Verb

    (exchang)
  • To trade or barter.
  • I'll gladly exchange my place for yours.
  • To replace with, as a substitute.
  • I'd like to exchange this shirt for one in a larger size.
    Since his arrest, the mob boss has exchanged a mansion for a jail cell.
    Derived terms
    * exchange flesh * exchanger * exchange vows