different between emphasise vs profess

English

Verb

emphasise (third-person singular simple present emphasises, present participle emphasising, simple past and past participle emphasised)

1. (British) Alternative spelling of emphasize

Usage notes

The "s" spelling has co-existed with the "z" spelling for at least 150 years (Thackeray wrote emphasised), and is becoming more common in the UK, with the "z" spelling slowly falling out of usage.

Anagrams

• semiheaps

English

Etymology

From Old French professer, and its source, the participle stem of Latin profit?r?, from pro- + fat?r? (“to confess, acknowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???f?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed)

1. (transitive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.) [from 14th c.]
   • 2000, Butler's Lives of the Saints, p.118:

     This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

2. (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Alex Needham, The Guardian, 9 Dec.:

     Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor […].

3. (transitive, intransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, First Folio 1623:

     He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice […].

   • 1974, ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time, 11 Feb 1974:

     The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.
4. (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010, Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian, 28 Sep 2010:

     Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.
5. (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]
   • 1983, Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India, Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:

     The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.

6. (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]
7. (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]

Translations

Further reading

• profess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• profess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.