What's difference "blurry" and "fuzzy"?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Eureka

Junior Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
Hi!

When reading an article, I found some sentence which makes me curious about meaning of adjectives.

ex) Boundaries of categories have become fuzzy and blurred.

I looked up English-Korean dictionary. It seems that they have the same meaning. So I wonder that they can have different uses depending on contexts even though they are synonymous or they can be used interchangeably. If the latter is correct, I think in the example above, the use of adjectives is redundant. (Probably, the writer can use both adjectives meaning the same thing in order to emphasize his argument even if it is redundant.)

Can you please explain what I'm confused about in adjective use?:-D

Thanks millons in advance
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Not a teacher.

In the example you cite, the distinction is very small.

In other contexts, they are not interchangeable. For instance, a stuffed animal or a blanket may be "fuzzy," but it is no blurry. Likewise, a page that has been photocopied three times and faxed from overseas may be "blurry" but it is not fuzzy.

Blurry means lines are not sharp, and fuzzy means that the covering on a surface (think of a sheep) makes it unclear where the boundaries are.
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Those are great examples, Dave.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
In addition to those examples [:up:], we also talk about fuzzy logic, where you could not replace the word with blurry. ;-)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top