The differnce between these words

Question

What is the difference between collaborate and cooperate 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

Answer 1

The two words have a subtle difference but have the same general meaning - a group of people working towards a goal.

 

Collaboration means that the people are working together and communicating while finding the solution. That could mean, for example, that if we had some math problem that could be broken down into parts, you could work on one part and I could work on another. Once we found our answers, we would put them together to find a complete solution.

 

Cooperation means the people aren't involved with each other as much. With the same math problem example, you and I would try the whole thing on our own and then compare solutions once we found them, then discuss any differences.

 

In both, we're working together to find an answer, but how we find the answer is a little different.

 

I hope this helps!