different between inform vs exclaim

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?f??m/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?f??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Etymology 1

From Middle English informen, enformen, borrowed from Old French enformer, informer (“to train, instruct, inform”), from Latin ?nf?rm? (“to shape, form, train, instruct, educate”), from in- (“into”) + f?rma (“form, shape”), equivalent to in- +? form.

Alternative forms

• enform (obsolete)

Verb

inform (third-person singular simple present informs, present participle informing, simple past and past participle informed)

1. (archaic, transitive) To instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge).
2. (transitive) To communicate knowledge to.

   • For he would learn their business secretly, / And then inform his master hastily.
3. (intransitive) To impart information or knowledge.
4. To act as an informer; denounce.
5. (transitive) To give form or character to; to inspire (with a given quality); to affect, influence (with a pervading principle, idea etc.).
6. (obsolete, intransitive) To make known, wisely and/or knowledgeably.
7. (obsolete, transitive) To direct, guide.
8. (archaic, intransitive) To take form; to become visible or manifest; to appear.

Synonyms

• (communicate knowledge to (trans.)): acquaint, apprise, notify; See also Thesaurus:inform
• (act as informer): dob, name names, peach, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out
• (take form): materialize, take shape; See also Thesaurus:come into being

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Latin ?nf?rmis

Adjective

inform (not comparable)

1. Without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cotton to this entry?) "Bleak Crags, and naked Hills, And the whole Prospect so inform and rude." (C. Cotton, Wonders of Peake in Poetical Works (1765) 342)

Anagrams

• -formin, F minor, Morfin, formin

Romanian

Etymology

From French informe, from Latin informis.

Adjective

inform m or n (feminine singular inform?, masculine plural informi, feminine and neuter plural informe)

1. deformed

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• exclame [16th-17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle French exclamer, from Latin excl?m?, excl?m?re (“call out”), from ex- + cl?m? (“to call”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?skle?m/, /?k?skle?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Verb

exclaim (third-person singular simple present exclaims, present participle exclaiming, simple past and past participle exclaimed)

1. (intransitive) To cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 3,^[1]

     I am a soldier, and unapt to weep,

     Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 9, p. 33,^[2]

     Very grave and good Women exclaimed against Men who begot Children and then disowned them.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Chapter 12,^[3]

     This wretched note was the finale of Emma’s breakfast. When once it had been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim.

   • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 114,^[4]

     […] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]

   • 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285,^[5]

     […] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.

2. (transitive) To say suddenly and with strong emotion.
   • 1603, Michael Drayton, The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second, London: N. Ling, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince,” p. 31,^[6]

     Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong?

     Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long?

     Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare,

     Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 2, Chapter 40, p. 28,^[7]

     […] her aunt, after having stared at me a good while with a look of amazement, exclaimed, “In the name of heaven! Who art thou?”—

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter 12,^[8]

     Without returning any direct reply, Miss Squeers, all at once, fell into a paroxysm of spiteful tears, and exclaimed that she was a wretched, neglected, miserable castaway.

   • “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

   • 2017, André Aciman, Enigma Variations, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “Manfred,” p. 135,^[9]

     You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:shout

Derived terms

• exclaimer

Related terms

Translations

Noun

exclaim (plural exclaims)

1. (obsolete) Exclamation; outcry, clamor.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene 2,^[10]

     Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;

     For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,

     Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.

   • 1635, John Donne, “His parting form her”:

     Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].