Questions tagged [meaning]
This tag is for questions related to definitions and nuances of meaning of a word or phrase.
16,359
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Is it fair to say that "sympathy" is a special scenario of "empathy"?
empathy = to understand someone else's feeling
sympathy = to share someone's sorry/sad feeling
In case of "empathy" one can understand someone's happy & sad feelings, while in "...
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Set off vs Get off
I heard that two verbs both mean ‘leave’ and ‘depart’
Is there a difference in the shape of meaning?
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Correct way of using the word "Primarily"
I am writing a scientific paper, and I want to write the following sentence in my paper:
Because the problem of low-rank matrix recovery finds its application in various settings, in the last two ...
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1
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40
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Why is "but" used in this context by Tolkien?
First chapter of The Return of the King:
Then men fell back before the command of his voice and questioned him no further, though they gazed in wonder at the hobbit that sat before him and at the ...
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Use of "Mention" [closed]
Is it correct to say "Our college didn't mention about tomorrow's holiday in today's notice"?
Is it correct to use "mention" in this case?
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What is the meaning of "tapping into the creation" [closed]
Would you please tell me, what does this mean?
because you are tapping into the creation part of ourselves
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Should I refer to the students as "them" or the "students?" [closed]
I am writing a short summary for my CV, and I am wondering, should I refer to the students as "them" or the "students?"
Please tell me which summary sounds better - summary 1 or ...
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38
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What does "cutting in" mean?
Flies, bees, beetles, wasps, and other insects are segmented creatures——head, thorax, and abdomen. where these parts join, there appears to the imaginative eye a "cutting in" of the body.
...
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What does "a paper of sandwiches" mean?
I am quoting from the TV series "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (episode 3, "The Naval Treaty"):
After leaving at the station I went for a charming walk through some admirable ...
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26
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Logical understanding of this sentence [migrated]
I'm having trouble with the last sentence:
"My very first day wearing clipless pedals on a road bike I got run up on by a couple of big dogs. My instinct was to stop, as it disarms their chase ...
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Help me understand this phrase: growing base yield royalties over a long period
That phrase is the heading of a short section from The Invincible Company by Alex Osterwalder et al. (The book is about managing, updating and optimizing your business model and constantly reinventing ...
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Future tense, Past tense, Present tense [closed]
So in context, my friend and I are having an argument about this quote:
Because they had an attitude with me, so I had an attitude back. I matched their energy cause i dont like people walking all ...
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Does the word "phallus" mean "penis" in all cases? [closed]
I was wondering whether the word "phallus" means "penis" in all cases, or only when the "penis" is erect.
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253
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"now that a brace of more able-bodied men were coming home" [closed]
now that a brace of more able-bodied men were coming home.
Brace doesn't make sence in this sentence. Is it used as a metaphor?
Brace means:
a device fitted to something, in particular a weak or ...
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In Hebrew, "hummus" means both chickpeas and the dish, what is an example of this sort of thing in English? [closed]
A friend and I were eating hummus last night and I pointed out that in Hebrew, the word "hummus" means both the chickpea (an ingredient) and the dish (ground chickpeas with other ingredients)...
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What‘s the meaning of "let alone a dormitory’s worth of them"? [closed]
This is what I've read on New Yorker. Here is the complete sentence:
I could not sample every e-commerce mattress. Some companies require a customer to live with the purchase for at least a month ...
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What is the meaning of " grappling with disparate answers"? [closed]
How frequent is long COVID? And how much protection do vaccines give against it? Why the public and policymakers are grappling with disparate answers to these basic questions？
What is the meaning of &...
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What does "he grew so out of heart" mean? [closed]
For example
...and he grew so out of heart that he sat down on a stone and began to weep.
Is it somehow related to fatigue or exhaustion or despair?
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Personal touches helped store bags [duplicate]
I am writing a review for a host on AirBnb web site, and I have to admit that after living for 4 years in an English-speaking country I cannot decipher what is supposed to be a simple feedback form:
...
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2
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Does "fair complexion" mean light or white skin color?
I am having trouble understanding definitive meaning of describing one's skin tone as "fair complexion". Is it meant to be used strictly in reference to white skin? Can it be used in other ...
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Studied English as a Subject at any level from Secondary onward [closed]
While filling an application, I came across a question "Studied English as a Subject at any level from Secondary onward?". Does it mean English as a subject in senior secondary or any other ...
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44
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What does the "they" represent? [closed]
I'm doing TOEFL speaking and noticed that in many conversations, speakers use "they" to represent the school or other institutions. For example, in TPO12's speaking part, the university is ...
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4
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266
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What is the meaning of "beggar" in this context?
When I was reading the book That's Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us, in which the author examines the key differences between the British and the Americans ...
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What is the meaning of "pale and cold"? noun or adjective? [closed]
...Soon the sharpened features, and sunken eye, and fallen jaw, pale and cold, bearing the manifest impress of death's signet, began to glow with returning animation....
The source: Leith in the time ...
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The differences between the word "contradictory" and "ambivalent"? [closed]
Correct me if wrong, I think both of the words are adjectives describing having two opposite characteristics at the same time.
To my understanding, while ambivalent is more of a psychological term or ...
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31
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What is the current meaning of OEM in technology?
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer
Wikipedia starts with a definition
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a
company that produces parts and equipment that ...
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3
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59
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Does spot have a negative connotation to it?
We are searching for a word that would mean place/site. The word spot sounds nice to us, as in
Let's go to that spot.
However looking at the definition, it is also used to mean a stain. So we wonder ...
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In a line graph report, can the verb “to wave” be used as a synonym of “to oscillate”? [closed]
Is this sentence right?
The prices wave from 30 to 60 dollars.
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41
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Difference between approximate and approximative [closed]
French is my native language and "approximative location" sounds better to my native tongue.
However I'm surprised that google spell checker is correcting "approximative location" ...
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44
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What does "I'll not go a step further" actually mean in this specific context?
Maybe you know the Norwegian folk tale Doll i 'the Grass. The story features the sentence
"But if you'll only say at once you'll be my wife, I'll not go a step
further," said Boots to Doll ...
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28
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Does "attempt" in past-tense imply failure? [migrated]
I read the following in a technical manual:
Three consecutive start attempts are permitted without cooldown. After the third start attempt, the starter motor must cool down for at least 60 minutes.
...
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What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
From Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross:
As a child, Miriam dreamed of becoming a doctor like her father, Dr. Friedman, who had practiced medicine in Chedrin, Latvia. 'A real ...
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What is the difference between "impossible" and "infeasible"? [closed]
In cryptography world I usually encounter the word "infeasible", like:
"It is computationally infeasible to solve elliptic curve discrete logarithm."
But I rarely see the word &...
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Which one of these two sentences is unnatural, and why? [closed]
A: It gets really hot when I use it for a couple of hours.
Is it supposed to do this? (is it supposed to do like that?)
B: No, it's not supposed to do that, but it can if you use it in direct sunlight....
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Issue with word 'incentives'
I am proofreading some documentation, and this sentence bothers me:
This incentives users to install the app.
Is the use of 'incentives' here grammatically incorrect?
Are these two alternatives ...
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Dictionaries that do a good job explaining nuances in how words are used [migrated]
I find dictionaries tend to provide definitions that are too general and don't cut to the heart of how words are distinctly used. Is there a dictionary that does a better job defining words or ...
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What does Tennyson mean by "Ye think ... the murmur of the world"?
I am finding the following lines from Tennyson's Idylls of the King rather perplexing (full text here):
A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk!
Tits, wrens, and all wing'd nothings peck him dead!
...
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Meaning of 'pelted clover' and 'gorged pastures' in Louise Glück poem? [migrated]
What do 'pelted clover' and 'gorged pastures' mean in the following poem by Louise Glück? Clover leaves that are being thrown? A pasture land with a pathway in the middle?
Labor Day
Requiring ...
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Issue with an expression using the -ing form [migrated]
What should I know about these two expressions?
I have two expressions but I do not know which one is correct and which one should I use. Above all what is the difference?
I am not the one writing ...
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what is the meaning of " uninsured" in this paragraph? [migrated]
Logically, Nagel was impeccable: if nothing matters, then indeed nothing matters at all, including one’s
despair about the fact that nothing matters. But all the
same! – how could one, having worked ...
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What is the meaning of "I'm on detail"?
I recently heard someone say, "I'm on detail." What does this mean?
For context, I was getting lunch takeout at a restaurant, and in line behind another person also getting takeout. The ...
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What is the meaning of “Donald Trump says Ivanka ‘checked out’…”
What is the meaning of "checked out" in Donald Trump says Ivanka ‘checked out’?
"Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked ...
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Meaning of "separate from everything, separate from anything you can put down on paper or maybe even drive off a lot, is the value of a human life"
While I was watching an episode from CSI Miami: Season 9, I heard Horatio Caine saying this:
You know, Ruben, separate from everything, separate from anything you can put down on paper or maybe even ...
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What does this symbol mean? What is its name? [duplicate]
What does this symbol between ELEGY and ON mean? What is its name?
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Why are there different words that have the same meaning? [closed]
I am trying to improve my vocabulary.
I often google the meaning of a word; and in the Google definition of, say, a word x it says:-
y,z.
I google the definition of y, it says in the meaning:- x,z;
...
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What does "One reads with dismay" in this sentence mean?
Here's the original quote, I'm not quite fully understand the first sentence.
What does "One reads with dismay" mean?
"On the basis of such sketchy data as stock price indices..."....
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51
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Is Einstein's geodesic a metaphor or an idiom? [closed]
Is Einstein's geodesic a metaphor or an idiom?
I am applying semantic theory to physical theory to bridge the two realities and have found the discussion on metaphor and odium illuminates this purpose....
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1
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What does Mr. Outside mean?
Could you please let me know what "Mr. Outside" means in the following excerpt.
Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit (aka the microchip), was the charismatic Mr. Outside, the ...
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Meaning of 'the consonant s, which no more belongs to the word, than any other letter in the alphabet'
The following is a passage from Noah Webster's Preface to his Compendious Dictionary published in 1806. Could anyone help me understand the part of 'the consonant s, which no more belongs to the word, ...
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Is this considered a lie or are they telling the truth? [migrated]
So if person A is fed false information by person B, and person A goes on to tell this information to person C in the best way possible in the exact way they heard it are they lying? Person A would be ...
