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Unless vs Without - What's the difference?

unless | without |

Without is a synonym of unless.

Without is a conjunction of unless.



As conjunctions the difference between unless and without

is that unless is except on a specified condition; if not while without is unless, except (introducing a clause).

As an adverb without is

outside, externally.

As a preposition without is

outside of, beyond.

unless

English

Alternative forms

* unlesse (obsolete)

Conjunction

(English Conjunctions)
  • Except on a specified condition; if not.
  • I’m leaving unless I get a pay rise (AmE: raise).
  • *
  • * 1839 , Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy Page 95
  • Secondly, When a body is once in motion it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its motion.

    Antonyms

    * (except on a condition) if

    Derived terms

    * precisely unless * unlesss * unless and until, until and unless

    Statistics

    *

    without

    English

    Alternative forms

    * withoute (archaic); wythoute, wythowt (obsolete), wythowte (obsolete)

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (archaic, or, literary) outside, externally
  • * c.1600s , (William Shakespeare), (Macbeth)
  • Macbeth: There's blood upon your face
    Murderer: 'tis Banquo's then
    Macbeth: 'tis better thee without then he within.
  • * 1900 , (Ernest Dowson), Benedictio Domini , lines 13-14
  • Strange silence here: without , the sounding street
    Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire
  • * 1904 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez) (Norton 2005, p.1100)
  • I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without .
  • Lacking something.
  • Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without .

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Outside of, beyond.
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.
  • *(Thomas Burnet) (1635?-1715)
  • *:Eternity, before the world and after, is without our reach.
  • *1967 , (George Harrison),
  • *:Life goes on within you and without you.
  • Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.
  • :
  • *, chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
  • *1967 , (George Harrison),
  • *:Life goes on within you and without you.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.}}
  • Not doing or not having done something.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • Derived terms

    * withoutness

    Synonyms

    * lacking, outwith, with no, -less, , sans

    Antonyms

    * (outside) within * (not having) with, having, characteristic of, endowed with

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • Unless, except (introducing a clause).
  • *:
  • *:And whanne this old man had sayd thus he came to one of tho knyghtes and sayd I haue lost alle that I haue sette in the / For thou hast rulyd the ageynste me as a warryour and vsed wrong werres with vayne glory more for the pleasyr of the world than to please me / therfor thow shalt be confounded withoute thow yelde me my tresour
  • *1913 , DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers , Penguin, 2006, p.264:
  • *:‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’
  • *1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
  • *:But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
  • Statistics

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