Combine or Mix?

Question

Hello, everyone! I'm quite confused about the difference between "combine" and "mix", as they often explain each other in dictionaries. I will appreciate it if anyone can help me with this question. Thanks in advance!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I'm quite confused about the difference between "combine" and "mix", as they often explain each other in dictionaries. I will appreciate it if anyone can help me with this question.

Tese words can sometimes be interchanged, sometimes not. Here are a couple of basic comments on how I see these words.

combine Join together, but in a way where the parts can still be identified separately.

eg There are two classes. One teacher is sick. The other teacher combines the two classes. But he knows which students belong, or don't belong, to his original class.

mix Thoroughly join together.

eg You put several ingredients in an electric blender. After a moment. you can't distinguish any of the individual ingredients.

Best wishes, Clive

CalifJim · Answer

sevengemI'm quite confused about the difference between "combine" and "mix", as they often explain each other in dictionaries.

I would describe combine as 'put together', and mix as 'combine and stir thoroughly'. If you're reading a recipe, the two words mean about the same thing, but mixing is a more thorough kind of combining.

If you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you spread the peanut butter first, then spread the jelly on top of it. There is a layer of peanut butter and a layer of jelly. You combine peanut butter and jelly, but you don't mix them.

If you wanted to mix them, you would put the peanut butter and the jelly in a bowl and stir them vigorously with a spoon until they were thoroughly blended together.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

I guess it depends on the circumstances: in cookery for example, one would mix liquids but combine solids - in either case it would be inpossible to either separate or distinguish the component parts. Do yuou 'mix' at a party? Quite feasibly.. Do you 'combine' at a party? Probably not.. But despite the mixing, nobody would suggest that you become indistinguishable from the other partygoers.

English is a wonderful language, full of inference and subtlety, and should not be nailed down by overly strict definitions. It is no surprise that various words can be interchanged and confused with each other. Where would we be if we had only one way to describe a colour, or walking, or anything else?

Relax - and enjoy. And by the way, I hope my U6th Latin set are reading this!

Combine or Mix?

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