What's the difference between contend and persuade?

Contend


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To strive in opposition; to contest; to dispute; to vie; to quarrel; to fight.
  • (v. i.) To struggle or exert one's self to obtain or retain possession of, or to defend.
  • (v. i.) To strive in debate; to engage in discussion; to dispute; to argue.
  • (v. t.) To struggle for; to contest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Duesberg contends that HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS.
  • (2) It is contended that the latter is the main factor in its production as opposed to the more common external rotation variety.
  • (3) The truth is, some of these attacks would be leveled against any Republican presidential contender.
  • (4) What did surprise pundits was Hollywood's recognition of this unflinching Austrian film about ageing as a candidate for best picture, among such expected contenders as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln , Ben Affleck's Argo and Tom Hooper's Les Misérables .
  • (5) The mayor needs to be in parliament to challenge other contenders for the party's leadership, such as George Osborne and Theresa May.
  • (6) Defence lawyers contended that Saiful's testimony about the alleged sodomy, at a Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2008, was riddled with inconsistencies and the DNA evidence mishandled by investigators.
  • (7) Although Menzies, et al., report that survival rates are higher than previously expected and that in most cases the children's and parents' lives appear not to be excessively burdensome, the Working Group contends that there "continues to be ethical justification for selective treatment" of such newborns.
  • (8) Romney contends the president is a nice guy who has failed to make things better.
  • (9) Radiotherapy after limited resection of craniopharyngiomas has been advocated by some investigators while others contend radical resections by means of advanced surgical techniques afford better outcome of patients.
  • (10) Despite spanning more than 1,300 acres it will not, apparently, be a contender for the title of world's largest: that appears still to reside with the 47-stage Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, India, as certified by Guinness World Records .
  • (11) Those seeking to stop the project contend that the $997m joint venture, signed in May 2010, did not undergo parliamentary scrutiny because it was concluded under the previous military regime.
  • (12) Although acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is clearly a public health threat, Beauchamp contends that the view that it is also a threat to the majority's values is a form of potentially counterproductive legal moralism.
  • (13) The author contends that changes in psychoanalytic theory are currently facilitating a more experiential view of the Rorschach.
  • (14) And he will contend, with a laugh, that therefore by any objective criteria, at 54, his career should be over already, while all the time doing everything in his power to prove the opposite.
  • (15) Scott Walker says building Canada border wall is a 'legitimate issue' Read more The governor, who is running well behind among the 17 contenders in the Republican White House race, sought to draw a distinction between his proposal and what he called Donald Trump’s “simplistic” idea on how to deal with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
  • (16) The prosecution contended that while that manoeuvre was lawful, his repeated use of a baton against her legs showed the officer had lost his self-control.
  • (17) It represents something of a vindication for Spielberg whose last high-minded awards contender, the first-world-war drama War Horse, failed to win anything at the last edition of either the Globes or the Oscars.
  • (18) Before we meet, I have to have a stern talk with myself about not mentioning the game last August in which all Arsenal fans will contend that Barton got new signing Gervinho sent off on his debut; he's had similarly abrasive encounters since with fellow midfielders, Karl Henry from Wolves and Norwich's Bradley Johnson, the latter earning him a three-match ban.
  • (19) With four matches to take the crown, a single strength can make the difference for the remaining contenders.
  • (20) It’s a massive inconvenience to have to check a laptop, and you can imagine that such a demand is met with resistance by air carriers, who are powerful lobbies.” US airlines have been lobbying the Trump administration to intervene in the Persian Gulf, where they have contended for years that the investments in three rapidly expanding airlines in the area – Etihad Airways, Qatar, and Emirates – constitute unfair government subsidies with which Delta, American and United cannot compete.

Persuade


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To influence or gain over by argument, advice, entreaty, expostulation, etc.; to draw or incline to a determination by presenting sufficient motives.
  • (v. t.) To try to influence.
  • (v. t.) To convince by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe.
  • (v. t.) To inculcate by argument or expostulation; to advise; to recommend.
  • (v. i.) To use persuasion; to plead; to prevail by persuasion.
  • (n.) Persuasion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Gordon Brown believes that the fact of the G20 summit has persuaded many tax havens, such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to indicate that they will adopt a more open approach.
  • (2) An official from Cafcass, the children and family court advisory service, tried to persuade the child in several interviews, but eventually the official told the court that further persuasion was inappropriate and essentially abusive.
  • (3) She kept it up for three years, until her son's letters finally persuaded her to cut down to one day a week.
  • (4) We simply do whatever nature needs and will work with anyone that wants to help wildlife.” His views might come as a surprise to some of the RSPB’s 1.1 million members, who would have been persuaded by its original pledge “to discourage the wanton destruction of birds”; they would equally have been a surprise to the RSPB’s detractors in the shooting world.
  • (5) That refusal seems to have persuaded Apple's team, which has been core to the development of WebKit since using it for the Safari browser, released in January 2003, to introduce WebKit2 earlier this year which did offer that capability.
  • (6) It seeks to acquaint them with 'ethical' arguments against their work which, because they are simple and plausible, persuade many people.
  • (7) Obama will meet with Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow as well, but US envoy George Mitchell has had no luck in recent weeks trying to persuade Netanyahu to compromise on the settlements.
  • (8) The charity Bite the Ballot , which persuaded hundreds of thousands to register before the last general election, is to set up “democracy cafes” in Starbucks branches, laying on experts to explain how to register and vote, and what the referendum is all about (Bite the Ballot does not take sides but merely encourages participation).
  • (9) The writer John Lanchester concedes that democracies will always need spies, but reading the Snowden documents persuaded him that piecing together habits of thought from internet searches takes things far beyond conventional spying: “Google doesn’t just know you’re gay before you tell your mum; it knows you’re gay before you do.
  • (10) But Richard Hall, director of infrastructure at Consumer Futures, a consumer watchdog, said Ofgem had "produced a lot of evidence that would persuade a third party that there is a trend [of rising prices]".
  • (11) McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate with an influential voice on US foreign affairs, is seen by the Obama administration as a potentially important intermediary in its intensive push to persuade Congress to swing behind the plan for airstrikes .
  • (12) According to Deborah Mattinson, his pollster, Brown " loved slogans and believed them to be imbued with a mystical power capable of persuading the most intransigent voter", and therefore went a bundle on them – not least " A future fair for all ", the surreal dud with which Labour went to the country in 2010, following 2005's equally idiotic " forward not back ".
  • (13) For a while North Korea refused to play, but after delicate negotiations the players were persuaded back on to the pitch and the correct flag was displayed alongside the team photos.
  • (14) When the owners of Manchester City finally managed to persuade Pep Guardiola to oversee the next stage of their masterplan it is fair to say they probably did not expect to be approaching Christmas scuffling with a team of Watford’s limitations for their first league win at home in almost three months.
  • (15) He has some suggestions for what might be done, including easing changing the planning laws to free up parts of the green belt, financial incentives to persuade local authorities to build, and the replacement of the council tax and stamp duty land tax with a new local property tax with automatic annual revaluations.
  • (16) Even if nobody switched party, the general election result would look very different to what’s predicted if millennials could be persuaded to vote at the same rate as pensioners, as polls factor in turnout differences and oversample the elderly accordingly.
  • (17) For some people, free cash will persuade them to take the plunge.
  • (18) The fact that the leave campaign are getting things as straightforward as this wrong should call into judgment the bigger argument about leaving the EU.” He said out campaigners were trying to persuade people to vote for Brexit solely on the back of an issue “that is not true”.
  • (19) We had already persuaded him to give us a little extra time, telling him we would both pay him on a particular day, but when that day rolled around, neither of us had the money.
  • (20) Nonetheless, the NSA persuaded Erwin Griswold, the former dean of Harvard law school, the then solicitor general of the United States, to knowingly lie to the United States supreme court that it was still a secret.