What's the difference between awe and wow?

Awe


Definition:

  • (n.) Dread; great fear mingled with respect.
  • (n.) The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
  • (v. t.) To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "I wanted it to have a romantic feel," says Wilson, "recalling Donald Campbell and his Bluebird machines and that spirit of awe-inspiring adventure."
  • (2) I have had the awe-inducing pleasure of standing alone among the giant trees, both sequoias and redwoods, and hearing nothing but the chatter of the squirrels and the high wind in the tallest branches.
  • (3) Let’s leave that discussion to another day, but imagine a combination of the two – sort of Transformers meets Ex Machina – in which a race of giant sexy robots battles it out with another race of really mean giant sexy robots while paltry human beings look on in awe, and teenage boys (and girls) experience incredibly conflicting and disturbing sensual awakenings in the front row of the Beckenham Odeon.
  • (4) But as a professional engineer, Alwash admits to having been in awe at what Saddam's men had done.
  • (5) An activist has discipline, goals and strategy.” Amy K. Nelson (@AmyKNelson) Amazing scene here at QuickTrip: exiled Tibetan monks here & people are in awe, hugging them, wanting photos.
  • (6) From where he stood, the Real Madrid coach watched in awe as barely metres away Gareth Bale started the sprint that ended with him scoring what he admitted was the "biggest" goal of his career: a 50-metre gallop that won the Copa del Rey for Real Madrid .
  • (7) The world is in awe of China’s relentless capacity to produce gargantuan cities, each outdoing the most recent superlative that describes its predecessor.
  • (8) He’s sensitive, intelligent, rather awe-inspiring and slightly frightening, but he is a real person, you can get really involved in him.
  • (9) One day they hope to recreate a full-size, ocean-going replica Roskilde 6, and send it across the sea to awe rather than to terrorise the coasts of the British Isles.
  • (10) Are we fighting for a better understanding of what is going on in our sport or are we trying to get power?’” Saddique Shaban (@SaddiqueShaban) No let up in Kenyan athletes siege at Roadha House as besieged officials watch in awe.
  • (11) But it was awe-inspiring to watch Rivers try: she had the stamina of someone (several someones) a fraction of her age.
  • (12) Of course a father looking at the ultrasound image of his gestating, 20-week-old daughters is going to feel love and awe and the majesty of life, and deeply feel that those are his babies and that they are people.
  • (13) Despite pressure from leaders in Europe and across the world – from David Cameron to Barack Obama – the ECB has resisted calls for a "shock and awe" intervention in the bond markets to support countries such as Italy and Spain, which have seen their borrowing costs soar in the past two weeks.
  • (14) A surgical intervention is dangerous for the old patient awing to the reduced reactiveness and polymorbity.
  • (15) Malton says she is "in awe" of how he goes about the work.
  • (16) The right has spent almost every moment of the last six years painting leftists as people gazing in blissful awe at Obama.
  • (17) When Spielberg asked him to design the mothership for the climax of Close Encounters, the artist drew on a dream from years earlier, in which he had seen an awe-inspiring spacecraft with pipes and stairways jutting out from its underside.
  • (18) He liked the band, and we gave him $10,000, which was probably a big influence.” Their second (far more unlikely) collaboration with P-Funk main man Clinton was such a success that the mere mention of his name sends the band into a love-glow of awe.
  • (19) Only a rare few have accomplished this noble journey and can attest to the feeling of awe that accompanies such a moment in one’s life.
  • (20) Yet in the face of the country’s political and media establishment warning Greeks to vote yes – echoing every major European leader (and quite a few faceless ones) – and the shock-and-awe tactics of the European Central Bank in pulling the plug on Greek banks , the country still delivered a loud no to austerity, troika-style.

Wow


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 9.23am GMT Second set: Murray* 3-6, 2-1 Federer (*denotes server): Wow.
  • (2) We used to watch River Cottage on the telly and thought: “Wow, where’s that?
  • (3) We said before the game, life’s horrible, it’s really tough sometimes; you get a kick in the teeth just when you think you’ve made it and, wow, did we get a kick in the teeth in our semi-final.
  • (4) Surely - famous last words alert - his distance of 8.06m isn't going to win this... 8.08pm BST Wow!
  • (5) And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s the woman I knew was there.’” Did it affect Peake’s own attitude towards men?
  • (6) Ali Mason (@alimason) Wow, Joe Buck is especially keen for us to live más today.
  • (7) Not even a David Freese who is a shadow of the player who wowed the world in the 2011 World Series.
  • (8) Q has upped his gadget game Facebook Twitter Pinterest The brooding and sombre Skyfall scored a few points for post-modern playfulness via its introductory scene for the new Q, in which Ben Whishaw might as well have offered Bond a couple of Netflix vouchers and a year’s subscription to Cosmopolitan for all the wow factor his proffered “gadgets” achieved.
  • (9) (Oh wow, note to self: trademark a version of American Football where players have to crawl or walk on their hands.)
  • (10) 2.43am GMT 49ers 17-23 Seahawks, 2:00, 4th quarter Wow!
  • (11) They tend to have something magical, that makes you go: ‘Wow.
  • (12) In the popular imagination she was a dippy woman who waved her arms a lot, sang in a shrieky voice and said wow every other word.
  • (13) He brought so much joy and heart to millions... Just, wow.
  • (14) At the end of the concert, this guy comes over with long hair and lipstick and he says ‘Hi how are you doing, I’m Brian Eno.’ I thought wow this is poetic justice … here’s Brian Eno listening to me, that’s great.
  • (15) 2.04am BST Heat 35-34 Spurs, 4:54 remaining, 2nd quarter Oh wow.
  • (16) The asymmetric phase shift in the model studied tends to accompany an improvement in the modulation transfer function (MTF) in the midfrequency region while introducing "wows" into the image.
  • (17) Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The media is so after me on women Wow, this is a tough business.
  • (18) At least half the Tory party thinks you're not completely messing up the economy … Osborne: Wow!
  • (19) China appears to have spared no expense in its bid to wow the world.
  • (20) A recent visit to Hamleys' new dolls area turned up a bumper brash-pack of new fashion dolls from the big companies: LaDeeDa Dolls (a swift move by SpinMaster), buzzing Flitter Fairies (Wow Stuff), glow-in-the-dark Bratzillaz (a brazen MGA fast-follow of the huge Mattel Monster High), Ever After High (Mattel), flashing Novi Stars (also MGA, alien dolls with Camden market hair springs and extensions) and all sorts of blinky, noisy merch spinoffs.

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