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Attenuate vs Suppress - What's the difference?

attenuate | suppress |

In electronics|lang=en terms the difference between attenuate and suppress

is that attenuate is (electronics) to reduce the amplitude of an electrical signal while suppress is (electronics) to reduce unwanted frequencies in a signal.

As verbs the difference between attenuate and suppress

is that attenuate is to reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree while suppress is to put an end to, especially with force, to crush, do away with; to prohibit, subdue.

As an adjective attenuate

is (botany|of leaves) gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.

attenuate

English

Verb

(attenuat)
  • To reduce in size, force, value, amount, or degree.
  • * 1874 , , Far From the Madding Crowd , ch. 40:
  • A manor-house clock from the far depths of shadow struck the hour, one, in a small, attenuated tone.
  • To make thinner, as by physically reshaping, starving, or decaying.
  • * 1899 , , His New Mittens , ch. 4:
  • Clumps of attenuated turkeys were suspended here and there.
  • * 1906 , , The Malefactor , ch. 1:
  • Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.
  • To weaken.
  • * Coleridge
  • The attention attenuates as its sphere contracts.
  • * Sir F. Palgrave
  • We may reject and reject till we attenuate history into sapless meagreness.
  • To rarefy.
  • * 1901 , , The First Men in the Moon , ch. 23:
  • "It speedily became apparent that the entire strangeness of our circumstances and surroundings—great loss of weight, attenuated but highly oxygenated air, consequent exaggeration of the results of muscular effort, rapid development of weird plants from obscure spores, lurid sky—was exciting my companion unduly."
  • (medicine) To reduce the virulence of a bacteria or virus.
  • (electronics) To reduce the amplitude of an electrical signal.
  • Antonyms

    * amplify (electronics)

    Derived terms

    * attenuation * attenuable

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (botany, of leaves) Gradually tapering into a petiole-like extension toward the base.
  • ----

    suppress

    English

    Verb

  • to put an end to, especially with force, to crush, do away with; to prohibit, subdue
  • ''Political dissent was brutally suppressed .
  • to restrain or repress an expression
  • ''I struggled to suppress my smile.
  • (psychiatry) to exclude undesirable thoughts from one's mind
  • He unconsciously suppressed his memories of abuse.
  • to prevent publication
  • The government suppressed the findings of their research about the true state of the economy.
  • to stop a flow or stream
  • The rescue team managed to suppress the flow of oil by blasting the drilling hole.
    ''Hot blackcurrant juice mixed with honey may suppress cough.
  • (US, legal) to forbid the use of evidence at trial because it is improper or was improperly obtained
  • (electronics) to reduce unwanted frequencies in a signal
  • (obsolete) to hold in place, to keep low
  • Anagrams

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