- include
- include, comprehend, embrace, involve, imply, subsume are comparable when meaning basically to contain something within as a part or portion of a whole.Include suggests that the thing included forms a constituent, component, or subordinate part{
the genus Viola includes the pansy as well as various violets
}{the col-lection will not include any examples of the artist's earlier paintings
}{an edition of the Bible which includes the Apocrypha
}{it would not be argued today that the power to regulate does not include the power to prohibit— Justice Holmes
}{few of the great men of our early national history extended their humanitarianism to include the Indian tribes— Hyman
}Comprehend suggests that within the scope or range of the whole under consideration (as the content of a term, a concept, a conception, or a view) the thing comprehended is held or enclosed even though it may or may not be clearly distinguished or actually distinguishable{it was not tolerance; it was something greater that comprehended tolerance but went far beyond it— G. W. Johnson
}{for philosophy's scope comprehends the truth of everything which man may understand— H. O. Taylory
}Embrace (see also ADOPT) suggests a reaching out to gather the thing embraced within the whole (as the content of a mind or of a course of study or a construction or interpretation of a law){the scene before the reddleman's eyes . . . embraced hillocks, pits, ridges, acclivities, one behind the other— Hardy
}{by Baudelaire's time it was no longer necessary for a man to embrace such varied interests in order to have the sense of the age— T. S. Eliot
}{whatever disagreement there may be as to the scope of the phrase "due process of law," there can be no doubt that it embraces the fundamental conception of a fair trial— Justice Holmes
}Involve suggests inclusion by virtue of the nature of the whole, whether by being its natural or inevitable consequence{surrender involves submission
}{it is quite probable that many of those who would make the best doctors are too poor to take the course. This involves a deplorable waste of talent— Russell
}or one of its antecedent conditions{clerkship did not necessarily involve even minor orders— Quiller-Couch
}{I should . . . supply the humanistic elements of education in ways not involving a great apparatus of learning— Russell
}or one of the parts or elements which comprise it by necessity or definition{that fusion of public and private life which was involved in the ideal of the Greek citizen— Dickinson
}Imply is very close to involve in meaning but stresses a thing's inclusion not, as involve does, by the nature or constitution of the whole but as something which can be inferred because hinted at (see also SUGGEST 1){the tone of the book was implied by shrewd advertisements featuring the author's open, smiling face—7. D. Hart
}or because normally or customarily part of its content especially by definition{embrace implies a reaching out to gather to oneself or within one's grasp
}{emergency and crisis imply conflict— Langfeld
}or be-cause invariably associated with the thing under consideration as its cause or its effect or as its maker or its product{a watch implies a watchmaker
}For this reason imply may, in comparison with involve, suggest a degree of uncertainty; thus, silence is often said to imply consent, but it would be rash to say that it involves consent.Subsume, a technical term in logic, philosophy, and the classificatory sciences, implies inclusion within a class or category (as an individual in a species or a species in a genus) or a being comprehended by a general principle or proposition{Absolute generic unity would obtain if there were one summum genus under which all things without exception could be eventually subsumed— JamesAnalogous words: *contain, hold, accommodateAntonyms: exchide
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
