What's the difference between able and could?

Able


Definition:

  • (superl.) Fit; adapted; suitable.
  • (superl.) Having sufficient power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.
  • (superl.) Specially: Having intellectual qualifications, or strong mental powers; showing ability or skill; talented; clever; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech.
  • (superl.) Legally qualified; possessed of legal competence; as, able to inherit or devise property.
  • (a.) To make able; to enable; to strengthen.
  • (a.) To vouch for.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We were able to detect genetic recombination between vaccine strains of PRV following in vitro or in vivo coinoculation of 2 strains of PRV.
  • (2) An effective graft-surveillance protocol needs to be applicable to all patients; practical in terms of time, effort, and cost; reliable; and able to detect, grade, and assess progression of lesions.
  • (3) Models able to describe the events of cellular growth and division and the dynamics of cell populations are useful for the understanding of functional control mechanisms and for the theoretical support for automated analysis of flow cytometric data and of cell volume distributions.
  • (4) Ursodeoxycholate was the only dihydroxy bile salt which was able to solubilize phospholipid (although not cholesterol) below the critical micellar concentration.
  • (5) Some of those drugs are able to stimulate the macrophages, even in an aspecific way, via the gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT), that is in connection with the bronchial associated lymphatic tissue (BALT).
  • (6) It was also able to inhibit the binding both of alpha-bungarotoxin and rabies virus glycoprotein to the acetylcholine receptor.
  • (7) At the time, with a regular supply of British immigrants arriving in large numbers in Australia, Biggs was able to blend in well as "Terry Cook", a carpenter, so well in fact that his wife, Charmian, was able to join him with his three sons.
  • (8) But RWE admitted it had often only been able to retain customers with expired contracts by offering them new deals with more favourable conditions.
  • (9) The procedure used in our laboratory was not able to provide accurate determination of the concentrations of these binding forms.
  • (10) As players, we want what's right, and we feel like no one in his family should be able to own the team.” The NBA has also said that Shelly Sterling should not remain as owner.
  • (11) It was also shown that after a shock at 44 degrees C teratocarcinoma cells were able to accumulate anomalous amounts of hsp 70 despite hsp 70 synthesis inhibition.
  • (12) We want to be sure that the country that’s providing all the infrastructure and support to the business is the one that reaps the reward by being able to collect the tax,” he said.
  • (13) Many thoracic motoneurons were able to survive up to posthatching stages following transplantation.
  • (14) Critics say he is unelectable as prime minister and will never be able to implement his plans, but he has nonetheless pulled attention back to an issue that many thought had gone away for good.
  • (15) Confidence is the major prerequisite for a doctor to be able to help his seriously ill patient.
  • (16) After four years of existence, many evaluations were able to show the qualities of this system regarding root canal penetration, cleaning and shaping.
  • (17) Obamacare price hikes show that now is the time to be bold | Celine Gounder Read more No longer able to keep patients off their plans outright, insurers have resorted to other ways to discriminate and avoid paying for necessary treatments.
  • (18) By growing purified human cytotrophoblasts under serum-free conditions and manipulating the culture surface, we were able to disassociate morphologic from biochemical differentiation.
  • (19) By means of two monoclonal antibodies, which were directed against external and internal acetylcholine (ACh) receptor epitopes, we were able to visualize ACh-receptors on OHCs.
  • (20) Our findings demonstrate that interleukin-2 (IL-2), but not interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) or interleukin-1 (IL-1), is able to inhibit the induction of T-cell unresponsiveness in a dose-dependent fashion.

Could


Definition:

  • (imp.) of Can
  • (imp.) Was, should be, or would be, able, capable, or susceptible. Used as an auxiliary, in the past tense or in the conditional present.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) All mutant proteins could associate with troponin I and troponin T to form a troponin complex.
  • (2) First results let us assume that clinically silent TIAs also (in analogy to clinically silent brain infarctions) could be detected and located.
  • (3) This may have significant consequences for people’s health.” However, Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the work, said medical journals could no longer be relied on to be unbiased.
  • (4) The measure destroyed the Justice Department’s plans to prosecute whatever Guantánamo detainees it could in federal courts.
  • (5) Yet the Tory promise of fiscal rectitude prevailed in England Alexander had been in charge of Labour’s election strategy, but he could not strategise a victory over a 20-year-old Scottish nationalist who has not yet taken her finals.
  • (6) Anti-Leu 7 could not be considered as a specific marker for oligodendroglioma.
  • (7) This bone could not be degraded by human monocytes in vitro as well as control bone (only 54% of control; P less than 0.003).
  • (8) Clinical and roentgenographic criteria could not discriminate between patients with and without pneumonia, confirming the findings of previous investigations.
  • (9) Van Persie's knee injury meant that Mata could work in tandem with the delightfully nimble Kagawa, starting for the first time since 22 January.
  • (10) The small units described here could be inhibitory interneurons which convert the excitatory response of large units into inhibition.
  • (11) Although solely nociresponsive neurons are clearly likely to fill a role in the processing and signalling of pain in the conscious central nervous system, the way in which such useful specificity could be conveyed by multireceptive neurons is difficult to appreciate.
  • (12) No consistent relationship could be found between the time interval from SAH to operation and the severity of vasospasm.
  • (13) A disease in an IgD (lambda) plasmocytoma is described, where after therapy with Alkeran and prednisone a disappearance of all clinical and laboratory findings indicating an activity could be observed.
  • (14) We conclude that only one of the alleles was amplified and that either allele could be amplified with respect to both the SphI and PvuII polymorphisms.
  • (15) Even with hepatic lipase, phospholipid hydrolysis could not deplete VLDL and IDL of sufficient phospholipid molecules to account for the loss of surface phospholipid that accompanies triacylglycerol hydrolysis and decreasing core volume as LDL is formed (or for conversion of HDL2 to HDL3).
  • (16) The secondary leukemia that occurred in these patients could be distinguished from the secondary leukemia that occurs after treatment with alkylating agents by the following: a shorter latency period; a predominance of monocytic or myelomonocytic features; and frequent cytogenetic abnormalities involving 11q23.
  • (17) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (18) In addition, KM231 could detect a small amount of the antigen ganglioside in human gastric normal and cancerous mucosa and in gastric cancer cell lines by HPTLC-immunostaining.
  • (19) Measurement of urinary GGT levels represents a means by which proximal tubular disease in equidae could be diagnosed in its developmental stages.
  • (20) PMNs could be primed for PMA-triggered oxidative burst by muramyl peptide molecules (MDP) and two of its adjuvant active nonpyrogenic derivatives.

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