Appraise vs Apprise? When Do You Use Each Word?

Not many human languages have as many similar-sounding words as English does, with most of those terms having almost identical spellings too. The fact that many English terms have their roots in Latin, French, and other foreign languages could be one reason for this. That is certainly true in the case of the verbs “appraise” and “apprise”.

The word “appraise” is used when you intend to evaluate, assess, or put a value on something – for instance, a property or an employee’s performance. The verb “apprise”, on the other hand, is used to notify someone of something they didn’t know already and should know or alerting them to something.

As mentioned above, the English language has more than just a few hundred pairs of words with similar spellings and sounds. Distinguishing them from each other, as a result, could be difficult if you don’t know the words’ respective meanings and/or are not paying much attention to their spellings while writing. This article shall more than familiarize you with the terms “appraise” and “apprise” so you never confuse the two.

“Appraise” and “Apprise” – Definitions

The verbs “appraise” and “apprise” are not linked etymologically and do not share definitions. Both the words are not just remarkably similar in spelling and pronunciation, but neither of the two is commonly used enough to begin with too.

What is “Appraise”?

To “appraise” means to “estimate or assess the quality, nature, significance, monetary value, etc. of something”. In the finance and tax realm, the term “appraise” means “to make valuations of something”. The word “appraise” sounds quite similar to “praise”, which is usually what you expect when someone appraises your property or the employee in you.

Though the origins of the word are not clearly documented, it’s believed the word “appraise” derives inspiration from the words “apreis-” (Middle French) and “appretiare” (Late Latin), which mean estimating the quality or value of a something.

What is “Apprise”?

If you take the letter “a” out of “appr(a)ise”, you get “apprise”. The word “apprise” means “giving information to (someone)” – for example, “Let her apprise me of the current situation.” Some synonyms for the word are “brief”, “acquaint”, “enlighten”, “fill in”, “inform”, “rate”, “value”, “notify”, etc.

The word “apprise” rhymes and even sounds like the word “prize”. Needless to say, “apprise” and “prize” have nothing in common – except for the slight similarity in their spellings.

Like “appraise”, “apprise” too has its roots in foreign languages, having stemmed from the French term “apprendre” and Latin word “apprendere”, both mean “to inform” or “to learn”. In current usage, “apprise” typically means “to tell” or “inform”.

What About “Apprize”, Then?

If you thought “appraise” and “apprise” are the only two words that sound similar to each other and have similar spellings, here is “apprize” for your perusal.

The term “apprize”, though spells more like “apprise”, is a bit more closely related to “appraise” in its meaning. The word is, in fact, synonymously used with “appraise”. It could at times also be employed as a spelling variation of “apprise”. Some recognized dictionaries also list the word as the secondary or alternate spelling of “apprise”.

But because the word’s secondary definition is rarely used, “apprize” is usually used to indicate “appraise” or something related in meaning.

Here are a couple of sentences with the word “apprize” in two different contexts:

• The legacies were, therefore, paid in company shares at apprized values.
• I apologize for not apprizing you of the company’s current state of affairs.

Unlike “appraise” and “apprise”, however, “apprize” is not commonly used because “appraise” works as the more established and widely used substitute, and also because using “apprize” could draw comparisons with “apprise” and lead to unnecessary confusions.

When looking up your favorite search engine to list out sentences that use the word “apprize”, the search site would ask you to confirm whether you used the right word for the particular search.

Using the Words “Appraise” and “Apprise” in Sentences

As mentioned above, “appraise” and “apprise” are two individual terms with distinct meanings. They, therefore, are not interchangeable.

The following are a few sentences employing both “appraise” and “apprise”, illustrating the fact that the two verbs are indeed distinct:

• If you have hired a professional to appraise your property, you should consider apprising your family members of the information that you owe more to the bank than your house’s actual worth.
• We shall apprise her of our appraisal methodologies tomorrow.

Using “Appraise” in Texts

Owing to how similar “appraise” and “apprise” are in their pronunciations and spellings, it’s not that difficult to confuse between the two words. However, if you are clear of what “appraise” means, confusion shouldn’t arise. In other words, use “appraise” when you intend to “evaluate” or “assess” anything.

As mentioned above, “appraise” has its fair share of synonyms. That means the word “assess” can also be used in contexts where “appraise” gets used. However, “assess” is mainly used to indicate “interpretation” or “understanding” and may not always serve as the perfect substitute word for “appraise”.

The verb “estimate” also overlaps with “appraise”. But “estimate” denotes “judgment” that precedes or occupies the place of or is used instead of “counting”, “testing out”, or “actual measuring” and similar words.

The words “appraise” and “evaluate” too have a fair bit in common. However, the verb “evaluate” stresses more on the attempt to ascertain intrinsic or relative worth in non-monetary terms, which “appraise” may not focus on as much.

Similarly, the words “rate” and “value” could also be used synonymously with “appraise”, but the former set of words too have certain connotations that “appraise” may not have. They, along with the other synonyms of “appraise”, therefore exist as distinct terms.

Using “Apprise” in Texts

Use the verb “apprise” in texts where the objective is to inform something to someone. And like “appraise”, “apprise” could also be substituted with synonyms, but only after considering the following things.

The word “apprise” sets itself apart from its synonyms or stands its own as it communicates things of particular importance or interest. The term “acquaint”, on the other hand, puts increased focus on “familiarizing with” or “introducing to”.

Similarly, the verb “inform” should be used over “apprise” in contexts where the stress is more on “imparting knowledge about certain occurrences or facts”. And the word “notify”, which can also be interchangeably used with “apprise”, implies “alerting someone of something that requires attention or demands action”.

The Confusion Between the Two Terms

Unsurprisingly, several writers get confused between “appraise” and “apprise” in their texts. The fact that both words are verbs, to begin with, sets the right stage for the confusion to set in.

Typically, writers use the verb “appraise” when they meant to use “apprise” – as in “to appraise” instead of “to apprise”. However, people using “apprise” in place of “appraise” in their texts is not that common. This writing error typically arises because quite a few writers don’t know the word “apprise” or the phrase “to apprise” exists in the first place.

Fortunately, this confusion between the words is not common in speech since both “appraise” and “apprise” are rarely used in oral communication. This is primarily because there are informal and more comfortable substitutes for both the words.

Example Sentences with the Word “Appraise”

Here are a few example sentences with the word “appraise” and derivates of the term to demonstrate the verb could be used to mean “setting a price on” or “assessing something”:

• The Fairfax County appraised the land at around $15 million.
• She is seated at her desk, keen to appraise the artistic works coming through the door.
• The government officials should interfere and appraise the land to levy the right tax.
• It will take time to catalog and appraise the entire collection.
• The business inspects and appraises used/pre-owned vehicles.
• Managers usually appraise their team members against goals set as standards in their appraisal reference terms.
• The women stepped back so that their handiwork could be appraised.
• He said the property was appraised at $400,000 after the renovations.
• The methodology was also employed to appraise the service’s past activities.

Example Sentences with the Word “Apprise”

The following is a list of sentences using the verb “apprise” and its past participle form:

• I am grateful to her for having apprised us of our grandfather’s illness.
• Kindly apprise me of the changes made to the document, if any, before publication.
• I would like to schedule a team meeting tomorrow afternoon to apprise all of Project B’s status.
• The law mandates anyone who has tested positive for HIV should apprise their spouse or sexual partner.
• She asked me to keep her apprised of things happening at work.
• The new intern was apprised of the various developments in the story.
• The pet is being taken care of by a highly trained team of animal technicians apprised of its requirements.
• You must keep your followers apprised of things you were up to during your absence online.
• Does the sales team in your organization keep its supervisors fully apprised of the numbers?
• The guests are apprised continuously of things happening in the hotel on a day-to-day basis.

Conclusion

Like most homophones, there isn’t much differentiating the two words “appraise” and “apprise” – in terms of how they are pronounced and their spellings.

If these similarities make it difficult to tell the two terms apart, just remember “appraise” entails praising, evaluating, or assessing someone or something. “Apprise”, on the other hand, is informing or communicating things to others.

This post, for instance, was written to “apprise” you of how “appraise” and “apprise” are two different terms.