In the sentences below:
The result of a man's jumping from the 10th floor is death.
The outcome of a man's jumping from the 10th floor is death.
They seem the same in the sentences above, what's the difference between them?
edit: The answer that reads:
"Result is preferable if you are describing what you get after following an organized or orderly process…"
It suggests result applies in a usual causation , but what shall it used when describing something abruptly happen like the one in my sentence mentioned? is it correct to say the death is an result of jumping off?
and
"Outcome can imply something was happening but no one party was in total control of things."
So it implies outcome should be used when things are unpredictable, but in my sentence above, isn't the outcome of death inevitable? and is it prosper to use outcome to refer to the aftermath of jumping off?
So my question is, what's the difference between them(the two sentences in comparision above)?
Any comment and answer regarding the question are appreciated. Please help to clear this confusion, thanks.
Best Answer
To add another answer, not because the others are wrong, but because I think they miss the main nuance for my differentiation of these terms:
Most often, a result is the consequence of one or more causes. It insists on the causality. This is also the heart of the particulate verb "result in", i.e. "to cause", "to bring about" or "to directly lead to".
On the other hand, an outcome is the final state of a given situation or setup. There doesn't need to be a direct cause, but various factors and events. In fact, there's a faint hint of denying knowledge of the exact reason it came about. An outcome is "how things turned out" or "what ended up happening".
Hence, if we take your example sentence on its own, "result" is preferable. The man jumps, and the direct consequence is that he dies. "Outcome" would produce the unusual suggestion that there are other factors in the man's death than jumping from the the 10th floor, or that the between jumping and dying there's a complicated process in which various things might happen.
But context is everything. If a person jumps from a high enough point, survives the fall with serious injuries, and is taken to the hospital where he receives various kinds of medical attention, then it would be very appropriate to say that the "outcome" was death. So it depends on what other facts you know about the case and where you want to put the emphasis.