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Vanish vs Diminish - What's the difference?

vanish | diminish |

As verbs the difference between vanish and diminish

is that vanish is to become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed while diminish is to make smaller.

As a noun vanish

is the brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.

vanish

English

Verb

(es)
  • To become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed.
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished , pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
  • (lb) To become equal to zero.
  • :The function f(x)=x2 vanishes at x=0.

    • Synonyms

    * disappear

    Derived terms

    * vanishing spray

    Noun

    (vanishes)
  • (phonetics) The brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.
    • a as in ale ordinarily ends with a vanish of i as in ill.
    o as in old ordinarily ends with a vanish of oo as in foot.
    (Rush)

    See also

    * glide (Webster 1913)

    diminish

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To make smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14
    • , author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}
  • To become smaller.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
  • To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
    • I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
  • * Milton
    • O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
  • To taper.
  • To disappear gradually.
  • To take away; to subtract.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
    • Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
  • (music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.

    • Derived terms

    * law of diminishing returns