Usage: Look VS Outlook

Tom Cruise? Good look!
Image from skytitles.com

It may be a cliché to say, "reading can really improve your vocabulary", but it is really true! One good example is the use of 'Outlook' and 'Look'.

Till today, there are still many people using these two words incorrectly. They think that 'out' in the word 'outlook' means external or exterior, and since a person's appearance is on the outside, so they think
'appearance' = 'outlook', but THIS IS SO WRONG!!!

The Outlook of auto market in USA

Published at www.expresso.pt on December 30th, 2008

There is an article below titles "Outlook for China auto market is not optimistic" from  China Business News, and it can be easily seen that 'outlook' has nothing to do with appearance or the face.


From Cambridge Dictionary Online, 'outlook' is in fact the likely future situation whereas 'look' is an expression on someone's face, the look of sb/sth means the appearance of someone or something, sb's look means a person's appearance, especially how attractive they are

As such, you can see that 'outlook' is to do with future situation whereas 'look' is to do with appearance.

Don't make this mistake again!!!!

Vocabulary:
cliché -- (n) [C or U] a comment that is very often made and is therefore not original and not interesting
outlook -- (n) [S] the likely future situation
look -- (n) [C] an expression on someone's face

Resources:
Outlook for China auto market is not optimistic @ China Business News
http://cnbusinessnews.com/outlook-for-china-auto-market-is-not-optimistic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+chinabusinessweek+%28China+business+news%29

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/outlook_1?q=outlook
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/look_9