What's the difference between a nucleophile and a base?

Question

Obviously it depends on the context whether you would call a particular species a nucleophile or a base but are the two terms largely synonymous or is there a difference?

Answer 1

A nucleophile has one or more lone pairs of electrons to provide to another atom (such as carbon) to form a

new covalent bond. In this Organic sense the nucleophile would be classified as a Lewis base, since it is

functioning as an electron pair donor. According to the Bronsted-Lowry interpretation, a base is a proton

acceptor, so any substance in an Organic sense that can abstract a proton from carbon or another atom would

also be functioning as a base.