Sketch vs. Diagram — What's the Difference?

A rough or unfinished drawing or painting, often made to assist in making a more finished picture

A diagram is a symbolic representation of information using visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since ancient times on walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Enlightenment.

A short humorous play or performance, consisting typically of one scene in a revue or comedy programme

A simplified drawing showing the appearance, structure, or workings of something; a schematic representation

A comical or amusing person or thing.

Represent (something) in graphic form

Make a rough drawing of

A plan, sketch, drawing, or outline designed to demonstrate or explain how something works or to clarify the relationship between the parts of a whole.

A hasty or undetailed drawing or painting often made as a preliminary study.

(Mathematics) A graphic representation of an algebraic or geometric relationship.

A brief general account or presentation; an outline.

A chart or graph.

A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or a short story.

To indicate or represent by or as if by a diagram.

(Music) A brief composition, especially for the piano.

A plan, drawing, sketch or outline to show how something works, or show the relationships between the parts of a whole.

A short, often satirical scene or play in a revue or variety show; a skit.

A graph or chart.

(Informal) An amusing person.

(category theory) A functor from an index category to another category. The objects and morphisms of the index category need not have any internal substance, but rather merely outline the connective structure of at least some part of the diagram's codomain. If the index category is J and the codomain is C, then the diagram is said to be "of type J in C".

To make a sketch of; outline.

(transitive) To represent or indicate something using a diagram.

To make a sketch.

(UK) To schedule the operations of a locomotive or train according to a diagram.

(ambitransitive) To make a brief, basic drawing.

A figure or drawing made to illustrate a statement, or facilitate a demonstration; a plan.

(transitive) To describe briefly and with very few details.

Any simple drawing made for mathematical or scientific purposes, or to assist a verbal explanation which refers to it; a mechanical drawing, as distinguished from an artistical one.

A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.

To put into the form of a diagram.

A rough design, plan, or draft, as a rough draft of a book.

A drawing intended to explain how something works; a drawing showing the relation between the parts

A brief description of a person or account of an incident; a general presentation or outline.

Make a schematic or technical drawing of that shows how things work or how they are constructed

A brief, light, or unfinished dramatic, musical, or literary work or idea; especially a short, often humorous or satirical scene or play, frequently as part of a revue or variety show.

A brief musical composition or theme, especially for the piano.

A brief, light, or informal literary composition, such as an essay or short story.

(informal) An amusing person.

A lookout; vigilant watch for something.

(UK) A humorous newspaper article summarizing political events, making heavy use of metaphor, paraphrase and caricature.

(category theory) A formal specification of a mathematical structure or a data type described in terms of a graph and diagrams (and cones (and cocones)) on it. It can be implemented by means of “models”, which are functors which are graph homomorphisms from the formal specification to categories such that the diagrams become commutative, the cones become limiting (i.e., products), the cocones become colimiting (i.e., sums).

Sketchy, shady, questionable.

An outline or general delineation of anything; a first rough or incomplete draught or plan of any design; especially, in the fine arts, such a representation of an object or scene as serves the artist's purpose by recording its chief features; also, a preliminary study for an original work.

To draw the outline or chief features of; to make a rought of.

To plan or describe by giving the principal points or ideas of.

To make sketches, as of landscapes.

Preliminary drawing for later elaboration;

A brief literary description

Short descriptive summary (of events)

A humorous or satirical drawing published in a newspaper or magazine

Make a sketch of;

Describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of;