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.

Optic vs Understand - What's the difference?

optic | understand |

As an adjective optic

is of, or relating to the eye or to vision.

As a noun optic

is an eye.

As a verb understand is

(lb) to be aware of the meaning of.

optic

English

Alternative forms

* optick (obsolete) * optique (obsolete)

Adjective

(-)
  • Of, or relating to the eye or to vision.
  • * Milton
  • The moon, whose orb / Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views.
  • Of, or relating to optics or optical instruments.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An eye.
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:The difference is as great between / The optics seeing, as the object seen.
  • *1819 , (Lord Byron), Don Juan , I:
  • *:how they, / Who saw those figures on the margin kiss all, / Could turn their optics to the text and pray, / Is more than I know
  • *
  • *:Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ ("I never) understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics ."
  • A lens or other part of an optical instrument that interacts with light.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Fenella Saunders, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture , passage=The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.}}
  • A measuring device with a small window, attached to an upside-down bottle, used to dispense alcoholic drinks in a bar.
  • Anagrams

    * * *

    understand

    English

    Alternative forms

    * understaund (obsolete)

    Verb

  • (lb) To be aware of the meaning of.
  • :
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I understand not what you mean by this.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}
  • To believe, based on information.
  • :
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.
  • To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.
  • :
  • :In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:
  • ::
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.
  • *
  • *:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  • To stand under; to support.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • Usage notes

    * Common objects of this verb include text'', ''word(s)'', ''sentence(s)'', ''note(s) , etc. * Rarely, the obsolete past tense form understanded'' may be found, e.g. in the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and ''Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church .

    Synonyms

    * (to know the meaning) apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok * (to believe) believe

    Antonyms

    * misunderstand

    Derived terms

    * I don’t understand * understandable * understanding * understood

    See also

    * explain * why