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Swear vs Believe - What's the difference?

swear | believe |

As verbs the difference between swear and believe

is that swear is to take an oath or swear can be to be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours while believe is (label) to accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (ie, as opposed to knowing).

As a noun swear

is a swearword.

As an adjective swear

is heavy.

swear

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) sweren, swerien, from (etyl) through Proto-Indo-European.

Verb

  • To take an oath.
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
  • (lb) To use offensive language.
    • Synonyms
    * See also
    Usage notes
    * In sense 1, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * swear by * swear like a trooper * swear on a stack of Bibles * swear out * swear to God * swear word

    Etymology 2

    From the above verb, or from (etyl) sware, from (etyl) swaru, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A swearword.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) swer, swar, from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l), (l)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Heavy.
  • Top-heavy; too high.
  • Dull; heavy; lazy; slow; reluctant; unwilling.
  • Niggardly.
  • A lazy time; a short rest during working hours (especially field labour); a siesta.
    • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.

    • Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs English reporting verbs

    believe

    English

    Alternative forms

    * beleeve (obsolete)

    Verb

    (believ)
  • (label) To accept as true, particularly without absolute certainty (i.e., as opposed to knowing)
    • (Here, the speaker merely accepts the accuracy of the conditional.)
  • * 1611 , (King James Version of the Bible), 1:1 :
    • Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}
  • (label) To accept that someone is telling the truth.
  • (label) To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.

    • Usage notes

    * The transitive verb believe and the phrasal verb (m) are similar but can have very different implications. ** To “believe” someone or something means to accept specific pieces of information as truth: believe the news'', ''believe the lead witness . To “believe a complete stranger” means to accept a stranger's story with little evidence. ** To “believe in” someone or something means to hold confidence and trust in that person or concept: believe in liberty'', ''believe in God . To “believe in one's fellow man” means to place trust and confidence in mankind. * Meanings sometimes overlap. To believe in'' a religious text would also require affirming the truth of at least the major tenets. To ''believe a religious text might likewise imply placing one's confidence and trust in it, in addition to accepting its statements as facts.

    Derived terms

    * believable * believability * believer * believe in * believe it or not * believe one's eyes * believe you me * disbelieve * unbelievable * unbeliever

    Related terms

    * belief * disbelief

    Statistics

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