different between alliance vs unity

English

Alternative forms

• alliaunce

Etymology

From Middle English alliaunce, from Old French aliance (French: alliance). Equivalent to ally +? -ance. Compare with Doric Greek ???? (halía, "assembly").

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??la?.?ns/
• Rhymes: -a??ns

Noun

alliance (countable and uncountable, plural alliances)

1. (uncountable) The state of being allied.

2. (countable) The act of allying or uniting.
3. (countable) A union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league.
4. (countable) Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity.
   • 1871, Charles John Smith, Synonyms Discriminated

     the alliance of the principles of the world with those of the gospel

   • 1860, Henry Longueville Mansel, Prolegomena Logica: An Inquiry Into the Psychological Character of Logical Processes

     the alliance […] between logic and metaphysics

5. (with the definite article) The persons or parties allied.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nicholas Udall to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (union by relationship in qualities): connection, affinity, union, allyship
• (act of allying): union
• (persons or parties allied): coalition, league, confederation, team (informal)

Related terms

• ally

Translations

Verb

alliance (third-person singular simple present alliances, present participle alliancing, simple past and past participle allianced)

1. (obsolete) To connect or unite by alliance; to ally.

Further reading

• alliance at OneLook Dictionary Search
• alliance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ancillae, canaille

French

Etymology

allier +? -ance

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.lj??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

alliance f (plural alliances)

1. alliance, union
2. wedding ring

Descendants

• ? Polish: alians
• ? Portuguese: aliança
• ? Russian: ??????? (al?jáns), ???????? (al?jáns)
  • ? Armenian: ?????? (alyans)
  • ? Kazakh: ?????? (al?yans)
• ? Turkish: alyans

Further reading

• “alliance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• canaille

Middle English

Noun

alliance

1. Alternative form of alliaunce

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman unité, Old French unité, from Latin ?nit?s, from ?nus (“one”) + noun of state suffix -it?s.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ju?n?t?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?jun?ti/

Noun

unity (countable and uncountable, plural unities)

1. (uncountable) Oneness; the state or fact of being one undivided entity.
   • 1846, E. A. Poe, The Philosophy of Composition

     If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression - for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed.
2. Agreement; harmony.
3. A single undivided thing, seen as complete in itself.
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 137:

     If a single day has brought us two or more experiences suitable to initiate a dream, the dream will unite references to them both into a single whole; it obeys a compulsion to form a unity [transl. Einheit] out of them.

4. (drama) Any of the three classical rules of drama: unity of action (nothing should be admitted not directly relevant to the development of the plot), unity of place (the scenes should be set in the same place), and unity of time (all the events should be such as might happen within a single day).
5. (mathematics) The number 1 or any element of a set or field that behaves under a given operation as the number 1 behaves under multiplication.

   the cube roots of unity

6. (law) The peculiar characteristics of an estate held by several in joint tenancy.
7. (Quakerism) The form of consensus in a Quaker meeting for business which signals that a decision has been reached. In order to achieve unity, everyone who does not agree with the decision must explicitly stand aside, possibly being recorded in the minutes as doing so.

Synonyms

• (oneness): See also Thesaurus:oneness

Antonyms

• (oneness): plurality, multiplicity, disunity; see also Thesaurus:manyness

Derived terms

• Inity

Related terms

• unique
• unus

Translations