Intention vs Want - What's the difference?
intention | want |
A course of action that a person intends to follow.
:
*(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784) (but see
*:Hell is paved with good intentions .
*
*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
*{{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3
, passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me.
The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
:
(lb) Tension; straining, stretching.
*, I.iii.3:
*:cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
A stretching or bending of the mind toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
*(John Locke) (1632-1705)
*:Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea.
(lb) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
*1732 , (John Arbuthnot),
*:In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts;.
(lb) Any mental apprehension of an object.
(lb) The process of the healing of a wound.
*2007 , Carie Ann Braun, ?Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health ,
*:When healing occurs by primary intention , the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.
(Webster 1913)
To wish for or to desire (something).
* , chapter=13
, title= * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title=
* Dryden
To lack, not to have (something).
*, II.3.7:
* James Merrick
* Addison
(colloquially with verbal noun as object) To be in need of; to require (something).
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
(dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.
* Ben Jonson
* Alexander Pope
(countable) A desire, wish, longing.
(countable, often, followed by of) Lack, absence.
* , King Henry VI Part 2 , act 4, sc. 8:
* :
(uncountable) Poverty.
* Jonathan Swift
Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
* Paley
(UK, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.
As nouns the difference between intention and want
is that intention is a course of action that a person intends to follow while want is a desire, wish, longing.As a verb want is
to wish for or to desire (something).As a proper noun Want is
a personification of want.intention
English
(wikipedia intention)Alternative forms
* entention (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)Apocryhpha)
George Goodchild
An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments …, Prop. II, p.159:
p.49:
Derived terms
* intentional * the road to hell is paved with good intentions * well-intentionedwant
English
Alternative forms
* waunt (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.}}
Geothermal Energy, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}
- The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting' or imperfect, so much ' wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life.
- he that hath skill to be a pilot wants' a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth' wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage.
- Not what we wish, but what we want , / Oh, let thy grace supply!
- I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.
- The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.
- You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want .
- For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find / What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb. SeeSynonyms
* (desire) set one's heart on, wish for, would like * (lack) be without * (require) need, be in need ofDerived terms
* I want to know * want-away * wanted * want for * wanting *Noun
(poverty)- [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
- For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
- For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
- For want of a horse the rider was lost.
- For want of a rider the battle was lost.
- For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
- And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
- Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want .
- Habitual superfluities become actual wants .
