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Hi,
I would like just to be sure of the two words "compare and contrast" usage.
I know that compare if appeared in a sentence like: Compare between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it would mean to find every similarities and differences between them. However, contrast means only the differences.
The point is that my friends keep saying that compare is only for the similarities and contrast is only for the differnces.
What do you think?
'Compare' tends to subsume 'contrast' in meaning. Where 'contrast' strongly suggests that we are intent on pointing out the differences, 'compare' suggests that we are matching qualities to see how much they are the same or how much they diverge from similarity. This latter effort verges on 'contrast'.
Compare and contrast. 
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