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Without vs Difference - What's the difference?

without | difference |

As an adverb without

is outside, externally.

As a preposition without

is outside of, beyond.

As a conjunction without

is unless, except (introducing a clause).

As a noun difference is

the quality of being different.

As a verb difference is

to distinguish or differentiate.

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

    *

    Anagrams

    * English locatives 200 English basic words 1000 English basic words

    difference

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The quality of being different.
  • (countable) A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
    • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • (countable) A disagreement or argument.
    • We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.
  • * T. Ellwood
    • Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
  • (countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
  • * 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
    • The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.
  • (countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
  • (obsolete) Choice; preference.
  • * Spenser
    • That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
  • (heraldry) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
  • (logic) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
  • (logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation (\scriptstyle A \overline B + \overline A B).
  • (relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another (\scriptstyle A \overline B).

    • Synonyms

    * (characteristic of something that makes it different from something else) departure, deviation, divergence * (disagreement or argument about something important) conflict, difference of opinion, dispute, dissension * (result of a subtraction) remainder * (significant change in state) nevermind

    Antonyms

    * (quality of being different) identity, sameness

    Derived terms

    * distinction without a difference * creative differences * difference engine * difference equation * difference gate * difference of two squares * goal difference * same difference * split the difference * spot the difference * tell the difference

    See also

    * addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total) * subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference) * multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product) * division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

    Verb

    (differenc)
  • To distinguish or differentiate.
    • (en)

    Synonyms

    * (to distinguish or differentiate) differentiate, distinguish

    Related terms

    * differ * different * differentiate * differentiation * differential

    External links

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