Purpose vs Process - What's the difference?
purpose | process |
An object to be reached; a target; an aim; a goal.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=
, volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= A result that is desired; an intention.
The act of intending to do something; resolution; determination.
* 2013 , Phil McNulty, "[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23830980]", BBC Sport , 1 September 2013:
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= The subject of discourse; the point at issue.
The reason for which something is done, or the reason it is done in a particular way.
(obsolete) Instance; example.
Have set as one's purpose; resolve to accomplish; intend; plan.
* Macaulay
(passive ) Designed for some purpose.
(obsolete) To have a purpose or intention; to discourse.
A series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 27, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (legal) The act of serving a defendant with a summons or a writ.
(biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
(anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
(computing) A task or program that is or was executing.
(manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries.
* 1960', Mack Tyner, '''''Process''' Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances'' - Ordinarily a '''process''' plant will use a steam boiler to supply its ' process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.
* 1987', J. R. Richards, ''Principles of control system design'' in ''Modelling and control of fermentation '''process'''es'' - The words ''plant'' or '''''process''''' infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or chemical ' process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.
A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Robert L. Dorit
, title=Rereading Darwin
, volume=100, issue=1, page=23
, magazine=
(lb) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
To perform a particular process.
To treat with a substance
To think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.
(mostly British) To walk in a procession.
In transitive terms the difference between purpose and process
is that purpose is (passive) Designed for some purpose while process is to think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.purpose
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)Ed Pilkington
‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told, passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
- United began with more purpose in the early phase of the second half and Liverpool were grateful for Glen Johnson's crucial block from Young's goalbound shot.
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
- (Spenser)
- The purpose of turning off the lights overnight is to save energy.
Synonyms
* (target ): aim, goal, object, target * (intention ): aim, plan, intention * (determination ): determination, intention, resolution * (subject of discourse ): matter, subject, topic * (reason for doing something ): reason * See alsoDerived terms
(terms derived from purpose) * all-purpose * common purpose * cross-purpose * fit for purpose * for all intents and purposes * game with a purpose * general-purpose * infinitive of purpose * multi-purpose * metapurpose * purpose-built * purposeful * purposeless * purpose-like * purpose loan * purposely * purpose statement * on purposeEtymology 2
From (etyl)Verb
(purpos)- I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living.
- (Spenser)
Derived terms
* purposed * purposer * purposive * on purposeSynonyms
* (have set as one's purpose ): aim, intend, mean, plan, set out * (designed for some purpose ): intendedReferences
* * *Statistics
*process
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl)Noun
(es)Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City, passage=But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.}}
T time, passage=Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.}}
- This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
citation, passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}
Derived terms
* due process * due process of law * due-process * process color, process colour * process hot water * process server * process upsetVerb
(es)- We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.