different between grasp vs mastery

English

Etymology

From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English gr?psan (“to touch, feel”), from Proto-Germanic *graipis?n?. Cognate with German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), Saterland Frisian Grapse (“double handful”). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????sp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æsp/
• Rhymes: -æsp

Verb

grasp (third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped)

1. To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
3. To understand.

   I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

4. To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

Synonyms

• (grip): clasp, grip, hold tight; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (understand): comprehend, fathom
• (take advantage): jump at the chance, jump on

Derived terms

• begrasp
• foregrasp
• grasp the nettle

Related terms

Translations

Noun

grasp (plural grasps)

1. (sometimes figuratively) Grip.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
3. Understanding.
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 13:

     There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.

4. That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

Translations

Anagrams

• ARPGs, sprag

English

Etymology

From Old French maistrie.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?mæst??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??st(?)?i/

Noun

mastery (usually uncountable, plural masteries)

1. The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.
   • c. 1610, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Misery of Invasive War

     If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops.
2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.
   • The voice of them that shout for mastery.

   • Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

   • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

     O, but to ha' gulled him / Had been a mastery.

3. (obsolete) Contest for superiority.

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

4. (obsolete) A masterly operation; a feat.

   • I wol doon a maistrie 'er I go.

5. (obsolete) The philosopher's stone.
6. The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered; expertise.
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious

     He […] could attain to a mastery in all languages.

   • The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties.

Related terms

• master

Translations

Anagrams

• streamy