Nanako
"remnant" vs "leftover" Hi everyone, Could someone please tell me the difference between "remnant" and "leftover"? 1. the remnants of a meal 2. the leftover of a meal Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks, Nanako
Dec 22, 2018 11:05 PM
Answers · 4
3
The "leftovers" are the unfinished part of a meal which you can keep in the fridge or freezer for another day. "The remnants" of something are small traces or pieces of evidence that indicate what the thing was, perhaps after consumption or destruction. If you only had the remnants of a meal, you might only have a few small pieces of meat or vegetables remaining - not enough to keep for another day. So "remnants" and "leftovers" are not synonyms in the context of meals.
December 22, 2018
1
They mean the same thing, but it's "leftovers" (not "leftover"), and "leftovers" is much more common. "Remnant" is more formal.
December 22, 2018
1
"Leftovers" almost always refers to food. Specifically, it refers to uneaten food, at the end of a meal, that can be saved and eaten the next day. "My wife always buys a big turkey for Thanksgiving. We eat leftovers for days, which is fine because I actually love leftover turkey." "Remnants" can refer to almost anything, not just food. It tends to mean small, unusable scraps. It carries a sense of "very little." Cloth for making clothing comes in long rolls called "bolts." After using it, there is usually a small piece left at the end that is too big to waste, but too small make a piece a clothing. That piece of cloth would be a "remnant." In the Aeneid, many Trojans were killed by the Greeks, and Aeneas, who survived, calls himself "a remnant left by the Greeks."
December 23, 2018
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