different between instruct vs assure

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 Old French asseurer (Modern French assurer), from Latin ad- + securus (“secure”). Cognate with Spanish asegurar. Doublet of assecure.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?????/, /?????/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?????/, /????/
• Homophone: ashore
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Verb

assure (third-person singular simple present assures, present participle assuring, simple past and past participle assured)

1. (transitive) To make sure and secure; ensure.
2. (transitive, followed by that or of) To give (someone) confidence in the trustworthiness of (something).

   I assure you that the program will work smoothly when we demonstrate it to the client.

   He assured of his commitment to her happiness.

3. (obsolete) To guarantee, promise (to do something).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:

     That as a law for euer should endure; / Which to obserue in word of knights they did assure.

4. (transitive) To reassure.

Related terms

• assurance
• reassure

Translations

See also

• ensure
• insure

Anagrams

• Sauers, Sauser

French

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -y?

Verb

assure

1. first-person singular present indicative of assurer
2. third-person singular present indicative of assurer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of assurer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of assurer
5. second-person singular imperative of assurer

Anagrams

• ruasse, sueras, useras