different between encounter vs strife

English

Alternative forms

• incounter (archaic)
• encountre, incountre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English encountren, from rom Anglo-Norman encountrer, Old French encontrer (“to confront”), from encontre (“against, counter to”), from Late Latin incontr? (“in front of”) itself from Latin in (“in”) + contr? (“against”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?ka?nt?/, /???ka?nt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?ka?nt?/, /???ka?nt?/
• Hyphenation: en?coun?ter
• Rhymes: -a?nt?(?)

Verb

encounter (third-person singular simple present encounters, present participle encountering, simple past and past participle encountered)

1. (transitive) To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly.
2. (transitive) To confront (someone or something) face to face.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To engage in conflict, as with an enemy.

   Three armies encountered at Waterloo.

Synonyms

(meet unexpectedly): cross paths

Translations

Noun

encounter (plural encounters)

1. A meeting, especially one that is unplanned or unexpected.

   • That was Selwyn's first encounter with the Ruthvens. A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.

   • 1995, Maija Kalin, Coping with problems of understanding: repair sequences in coversations between native and non-native speakers:

     As they have planned the encounters, they mostly have control over the time limits.

2. A hostile, often violent meeting; a confrontation, skirmish, or clash, as between combatants.
3. (sports) A match between two opposing sides.

Synonyms

• (hostile meeting): clash, confrontation, brush, skirmish

Derived terms

• close encounter
• encounter group

Translations

Anagrams

• encountre

English

Etymology

From Middle English strif, stryf, striffe, from Old French estrif, noun derived from estriver, from Frankish *str?ban; compare Dutch strijven. More at strive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?a?f/
• Rhymes: -a?f

Noun

strife (countable and uncountable, plural strifes)

1. Striving; earnest endeavor; hard work.
2. Exertion or contention for superiority, either by physical or intellectual means.
   • 1595: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

     From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
     A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
     Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
     Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
3. Bitter conflict, sometimes violent.

   Synonyms: altercation, contention, discord, wrangle

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvii:

     A few observations about the interpretation of vows or pledges may not be out of place here. Interpretation of pledges has been a fruitful source of strife all the world over. No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist the text to suit their own purposes.

4. (colloquial) A trouble of any kind.
5. (obsolete) That which is contended against; occasion of contest.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene^[1]:

     He ?pide lamenting her unlucky ?trife,

Derived terms

• strifeful
• strifeless
• strife-ridden
• trouble and strife

Related terms

• strive

Translations

References

• strife in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Fister, firest, firste, fister, freits, refits, resift, rifest, sifter