What's the difference between answer and reply?

Answer


Definition:

  • (n.) To speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation.
  • (n.) To speak or write in return to, as in return to a call or question, or to a speech, declaration, argument, or the like; to reply to (a question, remark, etc.); to respond to.
  • (n.) To respond to satisfactorily; to meet successfully by way of explanation, argument, or justification, and the like; to refute.
  • (n.) To be or act in return or response to.
  • (n.) To be or act in compliance with, in fulfillment or satisfaction of, as an order, obligation, demand; as, he answered my claim upon him; the servant answered the bell.
  • (n.) To render account to or for.
  • (n.) To atone; to be punished for.
  • (n.) To be opposite to; to face.
  • (n.) To be or act an equivalent to, or as adequate or sufficient for; to serve for; to repay.
  • (n.) To be or act in accommodation, conformity, relation, or proportion to; to correspond to; to suit.
  • (v. i.) To speak or write by way of return (originally, to a charge), or in reply; to make response.
  • (v. i.) To make a satisfactory response or return.
  • (v. i.) To render account, or to be responsible; to be accountable; to make amends; as, the man must answer to his employer for the money intrusted to his care.
  • (v. i.) To be or act in return.
  • (v. i.) To be or act by way of compliance, fulfillment, reciprocation, or satisfaction; to serve the purpose; as, gypsum answers as a manure on some soils.
  • (v. i.) To be opposite, or to act in opposition.
  • (v. i.) To be or act as an equivalent, or as adequate or sufficient; as, a very few will answer.
  • (v. i.) To be or act in conformity, or by way of accommodation, correspondence, relation, or proportion; to conform; to correspond; to suit; -- usually with to.
  • (n.) A reply to a change; a defense.
  • (n.) Something said or written in reply to a question, a call, an argument, an address, or the like; a reply.
  • (n.) Something done in return for, or in consequence of, something else; a responsive action.
  • (n.) A solution, the result of a mathematical operation; as, the answer to a problem.
  • (n.) A counter-statement of facts in a course of pleadings; a confutation of what the other party has alleged; a responsive declaration by a witness in reply to a question. In Equity, it is the usual form of defense to the complainant's charges in his bill.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Renal arteriography is therefore alone capable of answering two primordial questions: "Must surgery be undertaken and when operating, what surgical tactics to adopt".
  • (2) The accumulated evidence would strongly favor an affirmative answer.
  • (3) What if the court of justice refuses to answer the question?
  • (4) I think we are still trying to understand all that and I think that fits under the broader topic of social licence and what bringing in automation to an area does to that region as a whole, which we don’t quite know yet.” Could carbon farming be the answer for a 'clapped-out' Australia?
  • (5) Prior studies have provided conflicting answers to this question in part because they failed to agree on how the force of sexual selection should or could be operationalized.
  • (6) It’s not like there’s a simple answer.” Vassilopoulos said: “The media is all about entertainment.” “I don’t think they sell too many papers or get too many advertisements because of their coverage of income inequality,” said Calvert.
  • (7) The breakdown of answers to both questions revealed a significant partisan divide depending on people’s voting intention, with Labor supporters much more likely than Coalition backers to see the commission as a political attack and Heydon as conflicted.
  • (8) In conclusion it should be stated that there is some evidence for at least two defects of cellular immunity associated with AIDS and to some extent, with AIDS-endangered homosexuals suffering from lymphadenopathy: first the defect of PMNL to answer to concanavalin A with increased metabolic activity, and secondly the defect of PMNL to start phagocytosis induced by Zymosan with a subsequent release of oxygen radicals which are measurable as chemiluminescence.
  • (9) The HIV-1-positive cohort answered more questions correctly (mean = 8.5) than did the HIV-1-negative cohort (mean = 6.5), largely as a result of general information about AIDS among those with steady sexual partners.
  • (10) Eavis, of course, is not a man who takes "no chance" for an answer.
  • (11) Answer, citing Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” This is a very British suicide.
  • (12) The survey takes roughly 8 minutes to complete and all answers are confidential.
  • (13) We've brought on two experts to answer your questions from 1-2pm BST in the comment thread on this article.
  • (14) She said since then HMRC had created the largest virtual call centre in the world that enabled 20,000 HMRC staff to answer calls at any one time.
  • (15) The answer comes down to Chalabi's considerable skill in elite manoeuvring.
  • (16) Morrison and Operation Sovereign Borders commander Lieutenant General Angus Campbell continued to insist that their refusal to answer questions about “on water matters” was essential to meet the overriding goal of stopping asylum seeker boats, and said from now on such briefings on the policy would be held when needed, rather than every week because the “establishment phase” had finished.
  • (17) Hinton wrote that the answers he gave in 2007 were "sincere" and "comprehensive" and that he declined to appear.
  • (18) Back to my favourite Tunisian poet: “If, one day, a people desire to live, then fate will answer their call.
  • (19) As far as the subjective experience of children is concerned, analysis of the answers of a total of 1200 primary school children (answers classified by sex, age and period of outdoor school) proved the primary correlation with age and thus also with the level of adaptation mechanisms.
  • (20) Recognizing that the genesis and development of the disease process are extremely complex and the basic knowledge is limited, it is not likely that conclusive answers to questions will be forthcoming soon which will provide more effective preventive or therapeutic measures.

Reply


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make a return in words or writing; to respond; to answer.
  • (v. i.) To answer a defendant's plea.
  • (v. i.) Figuratively, to do something in return for something done; as, to reply to a signal; to reply to the fire of a battery.
  • (v. t.) To return for an answer.
  • (v. i.) That which is said, written, or done in answer to what is said, written, or done by another; an answer; a response.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I said: ‘Apologies for doing this publicly, but I did try to get a meeting with you, and I couldn’t even get a reply.’ And then I had a massive go at him – about everything really, from poverty to uni fees to NHS waiting times.” She giggles again.
  • (2) Responses to a monthly survey of 450-500 surveyors (usually 250-300 reply).
  • (3) When asked why the streets of London were not heaving with demonstrators protesting against Russia turning Aleppo into the Guernica of our times, Stop the War replied that it had no wish to add to the “jingoism” politicians were whipping up against plucky little Russia .
  • (4) Can somebody who is not a billionaire, who stands for working families, actually win an election into which billionaires are pouring millions of dollars?” Naming prominent and controversial rightwing donors, he said: “It is not just Hillary, it is the Koch brothers, it is Sheldon Adelson.” Stephanopoulos seized the moment, asking: “Are you lumping her in with them?” Choosing to refer to the 2010 supreme court decision that removed limits on corporate political donations, rather than address the question directly, Sanders replied: “What I am saying is that I get very frightened about the future of American democracy when this becomes a battle between billionaires.
  • (5) According to the report filed by the New York state department of financial services (NYSDFS), when warned by a US colleague about dealings with Iran, a Standard Chartered executive caustically replied: "You f---ing Americans.
  • (6) A survey sent randomly to 30 retail pharmacies got 24 replies.
  • (7) To which Salim replies: “But you do.” When such intimacy between two men can be broadcast to an audience of millions, we are shown that the ways of portraying gay sex can be reframed.
  • (8) Of 519 patients on the waiting list, replies were received from 471 (91%).
  • (9) Justice Hiley later suggested the conduct required by a doctor outside of his profession, as Chapman was describing it, was perhaps a “broad generality” and not specific enough “to create an ethical obligation.” “It’s no broader than the Hippocratic oath,” Chapman said in her reply.
  • (10) "Most technologies have their bright and dark side," he replies, buoyantly.
  • (11) Asked about white predominance in the sport, South African rugby journalist Paul Dobson replied: "If you suggest that again I'll get annoyed and put the phone down.
  • (12) #WhitePrideWorldWide.” Anonymous replied in true vigilante style on Sunday, by taking control of the KKK Twitter account and replacing the logo with its own.
  • (13) Asked what form the arrangements could take, the peer replied: "Wherever we think that there's something happening that is undesirable and we're looking very carefully at how to draw up those protections."
  • (14) Asked if he thought the committee had been misled, Whittingdale replied: "I'm not sure yet."
  • (15) "I can't decide by myself," Mourinho replied when asked how the injuries would influence his team selection at Anfield.
  • (16) Last year he was asked how it was mathematically possible for all schools to exceed the national average, and replied: " By getting better all the time. "
  • (17) I watched some boxing last night," he replies in his faint, lisping voice.
  • (18) The other example is of a woman who had a child who died at the age of 10 and expressed no regrets, but when questioned about whether she would have continued a pregnancy knowingly aware the baby would die in 10 years, the woman replied that she could not imagine how anyone could be so strong as to bear a child knowing the brevity of its life.
  • (19) Asked whether the US tax code was convoluted and difficult to understand partly because of lobbying by companies including Apple for exemptions, Cook replied: "No doubt."
  • (20) Rule one surely is to reply to customers' phone calls and letters.