Toward vs Different - What's the difference?
toward | different |
In the direction of.
:
*(Bible), (w) xxiv. 1
*:He set his face toward the wilderness.
*
*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
In relation to (someone or something).
:
*(Bible), (w)
*:His eye shall be evil toward his brother.
For the purpose of attaining (an aim).
:
Located close to; near (a time or place).
:
*(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
*:I am toward nine years older since I left you.
(obsolete) Future; to come.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
(dated) Approaching, coming near; impending; present, at hand.
* Shakespeare
* 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
Yielding, pliant; docile; ready or apt to learn; not froward.
(obsolete, or, archaic) Promising, likely; froward.
Not the same; exhibiting a difference.
*
* 1971 , William S. Burroughs, , page 6
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Various, assorted, diverse.
* 2006 , Delbert S. Elliott et al., Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521863575, page 19:
Distinct, separate; (used for emphasis after numbers and other determiners of quantity).
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= Unlike most others; unusual.
As a preposition toward
is in the direction of.As an adjective toward
is (obsolete) future; to come.As a verb different is
.toward
English
Preposition
(en-prep) (mainly in American English)Synonyms
* towardsUsage notes
* Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words (term) and (towards), the difference is merely dialectal. (term) is more common in American English and (towards) is the predominant form in British English.Adjective
(-)- ere that wished day his beame disclosd, / He either enuying my toward good, / Or of himselfe to treason ill disposd / One day vnto me came in friendly mood [...].
- Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward ?
- On the morrow […] orders the Cellerarius to send off his carpenters to demolish the said structure brevi manu , and lay up the wood in safe keeping. Old Dean Herbert, hearing what was toward , comes tottering along hither, to plead humbly for himself and his mill.
- Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. ? Shakespeare.
Statistics
* American Englishdifferent
English
(wikipedia different)Adjective
(en adjective)- Enter the American tourist. He thinks of himself as a good guy but when he looks in the mirror to shave this good guy he has to admit that "well, other people are different from me and I don't really like them." This makes him feel guilty toward other people.
Ian Sample
Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
- In any case, poor black respondents living in high-poverty neighborhoods are most likely to view their neighborhood as a single block or block group and to use this definition consistently when asked about different neighborhood characteristics and activities.
Charles T. Ambrose
Alzheimer’s Disease, volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.}}
Usage notes
* (not the same) Depending on dialect, time period, and register, the adjective may be construed with one of the prepositions (from), (to), and (than), or with the subordinating conjunction (than).- Pleasure is different from'''/'''than'''/'''to''' happiness.''
- ''It's different '''than''' ''(or '''''from what'' )'' I expected.