The difference between Affect and Attack
When used as nouns, affect means one's mood or inclination, whereas attack means an attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.
When used as verbs, affect means to influence or alter, whereas attack means to apply violent force to someone or something.
check bellow for the other definitions of Affect and Attack
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Affect as a verb (transitive):
To influence or alter.
Examples:
"The experience affected me deeply."
"The heat of the sunlight affected the speed of the chemical reaction."
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Affect as a verb (transitive):
To move to emotion.
Examples:
"He was deeply affected by the tragic ending of the play."
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Affect as a verb (transitive):
Of an illness or condition, to infect or harm (a part of the body).
Examples:
"Hepatitis affects the liver."
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Affect as a verb (transitive, archaic):
To dispose or incline.
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Affect as a verb (transitive, archaic):
To tend to by affinity or disposition.
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Affect as a verb (transitive, archaic):
To assign; to appoint.
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Affect as a verb (transitive):
To make a show of; to put on a pretence of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of.
Examples:
"to affect ignorance"
"He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable."
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Affect as a verb (obsolete, transitive):
To aim for, to try to obtain.
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Affect as a verb (transitive, now, _, rare):
To feel affection for (someone); to like, be fond of.
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Affect as a verb (transitive, obsolete):
To show a fondness for (something); to choose.
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Affect as a noun (obsolete):
One's mood or inclination; mental state.
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Affect as a noun (obsolete):
A desire, an appetite.
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Affect as a noun (psychology):
A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs.
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Attack as a noun:
An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of opponent or enemy.
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Attack as a noun:
An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
Examples:
"They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech."
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Attack as a noun:
A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
Examples:
"The army timed their attack to coincide with the local celebrations."
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Attack as a noun (informal, by extension):
The beginning of active operations on anything.
Examples:
"Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry."
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Attack as a noun (cricket):
Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
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Attack as a noun (volleyball):
Any contact with the ball other than a serve or block which sends the ball across the plane of the net.
Examples:
"synonyms: hit spike"
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Attack as a noun (lacrosse):
The three attackmen on the field or all the attackmen of a team.
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Attack as a noun (medicine):
The sudden onset of a disease or condition.
Examples:
"I've had an attack of the flu."
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Attack as a noun:
An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
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Attack as a noun (music):
The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.
Examples:
"ant decay release"
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Attack as a noun (audio):
The amount of time it takes for the volume of an audio signal to go from zero to maximum level (e.g. an audio waveform representing a snare drum hit would feature a very fast attack, whereas that of a wave washing to shore would feature a slow attack).
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Attack as a verb (transitive):
To apply violent force to someone or something.
Examples:
"This species of snake will only attack humans if it feels threatened."
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Attack as a verb (transitive):
To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
Examples:
"She published an article attacking the recent pay cuts."
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Attack as a verb (transitive):
To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
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Attack as a verb (transitive):
To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
Examples:
"We’ll have dinner before we attack the biology homework."
"I attacked the meal with a hearty appetite."
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Attack as a verb (transitive, cricket):
To aim balls at the batsman's wicket.
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Attack as a verb (intransitive, cricket):
To set a field, or bowl in a manner designed to get wickets.
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Attack as a verb (intransitive, cricket):
To bat aggressively, so as to score runs quickly.
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Attack as a verb (soccer):
To move forward in an active attempt to score a point, as opposed to trying not to concede.
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Attack as a verb (cycling):
To accelerate quickly in an attempt to get ahead of the other riders.