different between instruct vs assert

English

Etymology

From Latin ?nstr?ctus, perfect passive participle of ?nstru? (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n?st??kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

instruct (third-person singular simple present instructs, present participle instructing, simple past and past participle instructed)

1. (transitive) To teach by giving instructions.

   Synonyms: educate, guide

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 3,^[1]

     Supply me with the habit and instruct me

     How I may formally in person bear me

     Like a true friar.

   • 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count, London: Jacob Tonson, Act III, Scene 2, p. 33,^[2]

     What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.

   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177,^[3]

     […] the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 10,^[4]

     […] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you.

   • 1974, Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, New York: William Morrow, Part 4, Chapter 29, p. 353,^[5]

     At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]

2. (transitive) To tell (someone) what they must or should do.

   Synonyms: command, direct, order

   Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act III, Scene 1,^[6]

     What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 39,^[7]

     All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]

   • 1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: Ballantine, 1997, Chapter 5, p. 195,^[8]

     Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”

Related terms

Translations

Noun

instruct (plural instructs)

1. (obsolete) Instruction.

Adjective

instruct (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided.
   • c. 1615, George Chapman (translator), Homer’s Odysses, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 4, p. 62,^[9]

     For he had neither ship, instruct with oares,

     Nor men to fetch him from those stranger shores.

2. (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, London: John Starkey, Book 1, lines 438-441, p. 24,^[10]

     Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

     Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct

     To flye or follow what concern’d him most,

     And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

Anagrams

• unstrict

English

Etymology

From Latin assertus, perfect passive participle of asser? (“declare someone free or a slave by laying hands upon him; hence free from, protect, defend; lay claim to, assert, declare”), from ad (“to”) + ser? (“join, range in a row”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??s??t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??s?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Verb

assert (third-person singular simple present asserts, present participle asserting, simple past and past participle asserted)

1. To declare with assurance or plainly and strongly; to state positively.

   He would often assert that there was life on other planets.

2. To use or exercise and thereby prove the existence of.

   to assert one's authority

   Salman Rushdie has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.

3. To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to

   to assert our rights and liberties

4. (programming) To specify that a condition or expression is true at a certain point in the code.
5. (electronics) To set a signal on a line using a voltage or electric current.

Antonyms

• remit
• deny
• deassert

Synonyms

• affirm
• asseverate
• aver

Related terms

Translations

Noun

assert (plural asserts)

1. (computer science) an assertion; a section of source code which tests whether an expected condition is true.

Translations

References

• “assert” in the Collins English Dictionary

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Sastre, Saters, TASers, Tasers, Tesars, asters, reasts, setars, stares, stears, tarses, tasers

Portuguese

Noun

assert m (plural asserts)

1. (programming) assert (conditional statement that checks the validity of a value)