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Technical and Technological

Technically and Technologically

Can these be used interchangeably? Is there a difference?

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What does the dictionary tell you? – coleopterist Oct 9 '12 at 4:25

closed as general reference by MετάEd, David Wallace, Matt Эллен, Mitch, tchrist Oct 10 '12 at 23:30

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1 Answer

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No, they should not be used interchangeably. "Technical" and "technological" are adjectives, whereas "technically and "technologically" are adverbs. "Technological" and "technologically" refer to the technology (i.e. theory and mechanics) behind something, e.g. computers.

The technological advancement of the twentieth century is astounding.

Cars have advanced technologically from entirely mechanical to largely computer-controlled.

"Technical" and "technically" denote the technique behind something, and are often used to bring attention to details where the actual rules and intuition differ:

What he did is morally right but was technically illegal.

C technically allows you to swap an array variable and its index, but it's normally considered bad practice.

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Based on the title, this answer misses the question. The question is about technical vs. technological. – MετάEd Oct 9 '12 at 4:03
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@MετάEd The first sentence may be missing the question, but the definitions and examples that follow seem to answer it nicely. – user867 Oct 9 '12 at 4:21

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