- teach
- teach, *instruct, educate, train, discipline, school are comparable when they mean to cause to acquire knowledge or skill. Teach implies a direct showing to another with the intent that he will learn; it usually suggests the imparting of information, but in addition it often also connotes the giving of help that will assist the learner in mastering such difficulties as are involved in putting the new knowledge to use or in making it a part of his mental or physical equipment{
teaching the young to read
}{teach arithmetic
}{taught the boys how to swim
}{that same prayer does teach us all to render the deeds of mercy— Shak.
}Instruct stresses the furnishing, especially the methodical furnishing, of necessary knowledge or skill to someone else{schoolmasters will I keep within my house, fit to instruct her youth— Shak.
}{he is wise who can instruct us and assist us in the business of daily virtuous living— Carlyle
}Educate, although it implies or presupposes teaching or instruction as the means, stresses the intention or the result, the bringing out or development of qualities or capacities latent in the individual or regarded as essential to his position in life{schools that educate boys for the ministry
}{in my eyes the question is not what to teach, but how to educate— Kingsley
}{educate the masses into becoming fit for self-government— Huxley
}Train, even when it is used as a close synonym of educate, almost invariably suggests a distinct end or aim which guides teachers and instructors; it implies, therefore, such subjection of the pupil as will form him or fit him for the state in view{universities exist ... on the one hand, to train men and women for certain professions— Russell
}Train is especially employed in reference to the instruction of persons or sometimes animals who must be physically in excellent condition, mentally proficient, or quickly responsive to orders for a given occupation or kind of work{train a dog to point game
}{troops . . . equipped and trained to fight in the bitter cold and the deep snow— Shirer
}Discipline, even more than train, implies subordination to a master or subjection to control, often self- control{he consciously seeks to discipline himself in fine thinking and right living— Ellis
}{feeling . . . the rush of old jealousy he had thought long since disciplined from him— Buck
}School is sometimes interchangeable with educate{some of them have been schooled at Eton and Harrow— Shaw
}or with teach or instruct (schooled by my guide, it was not difficult to realize the scene—S. C. Hall) but it is more often used in the sense of train or discipline, frequently with the added implication of learning to endure what is hard to bear{that I can bear. I can school myself to worse than that— Wilde
}{groomed and faultless, schooled in power, he bowed greetings— Wolfe
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
