Block vs. Brick — What's the Difference?

An obstruction to the normal use of a system or area.

A basketball shot that misses everything; net, rim, and backboard.

A large quantity or allocation of things regarded as a unit.

An electronic device regarded as functionally obsolete or as having failed.

A mold or form on which something is shaped or displayed.

An element of drugs packaged in a solid form.

A large, solid piece of hard material, especially rock, stone, or concrete, used as a barrier or building material.

A reliable, hardworking person who routinely does solid work.

A cuboid of wood, plastic, or metal, typically hollow and used as a housing for a mechanism.

A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured construction blocks.

A solid piece of a hard substance, such as wood, having one or more flat sides.

A small rectangular block typically made of fired or sun-dried clay, used in building.

Such a piece used as a construction member or as a support.

A large and relatively heavy mobile phone, typically an early model with limited functionality

Such a piece upon which chopping or cutting is done

A generous, helpful, and reliable person

Such a piece upon which persons are beheaded.

Block or enclose with a wall of bricks

One of a set of small wooden or plastic pieces, such as a cube, bar, or cylinder, used as a building toy.

Throw bricks at

(Printing) A large amount of text.

Cause (a smartphone or other electronic device) to become completely unable to function, typically on a permanent basis

(Sports) A starting block.

Be extremely worried or nervous.

A stand from which articles are displayed and sold at an auction

A molded rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln until hard and used as a building and paving material.

A mold or form on which an item is shaped or displayed

Such blocks of clay used as a building material

A substance, such as wood or stone, that has been prepared for engraving.

An object shaped like such a block

A pulley or a system of pulleys set in a casing.

(Informal) A smartphone, tablet, or similar electronic device that connects to the internet that has become inoperable.

An engine block.

A dark brownish red.

A bloc.

(Informal) A helpful, reliable person.

A set of like items, such as shares of stock, sold or handled as a unit.

(Basketball) A shot that falls short of the basket.

A group of four or more unseparated postage stamps forming a rectangle.

To construct, line, or pave with bricks.

(Canadian) A group of townships in an unsurveyed area.

To close or wall with brick

A usually rectangular section of a city or town bounded on each side by consecutive streets.

(Informal) To cause to become inoperable. Used especially of electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, that connect to the internet. I bricked my smartphone when I tried to untether it.

A segment of a street bounded by consecutive cross streets and including its buildings and inhabitants.

(Informal) To become inoperable. Used especially of electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, that connect to the internet.

A large building divided into separate units, such as apartments.

(countable) A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

A length of railroad track controlled by signals.

(uncountable) Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.

Something that obstructs; an obstacle

(countable) Something shaped like a brick.

(Sports) An act of bodily obstruction, as of a player or the ball.

A helpful and reliable person.

(Football) An act of legally using one's body to obstruct or move a defensive player so that a player in possession of the ball may advance downfield, pass, or otherwise execute an offensive play.

A shot which misses, particularly one which bounces directly out of the basket because of a too-flat trajectory, as if the ball were a heavier object.

(Medicine) Interruption or obstruction of a physiological function

(informal) A power brick; an external power supply consisting of a small box with an integral male power plug and an attached electric cord terminating in another power plug.

(Psychology) A sudden cessation of speech or a thought process without an immediate observable cause, sometimes considered a consequence of repression. Also called mental block.

An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.

(Slang) The human head

A projectile.

To stop or impede the passage of or movement through; obstruct

(firearms) A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.

To prevent from happening, succeeding, or progressing

(poker slang) A community card (usually the turn or the river) which does not improve a player's hand.

To shut out from view

The colour brick red.

To stop the passage of (a motion or bill) in a legislative assembly.

(slang) A kilogram of cocaine.

(Sports) To prevent or slow the movement of (an opponent) by using one's body, as by making a block in football.

Extremely cold.

(Sports) To stop or deflect (a ball or puck) by using one's body.

(transitive) To build, line, or form with bricks.

(Medicine) To interrupt or obstruct the functioning of (a physiological process), especially by the use of drugs.

(transitive) To make into bricks.

(Psychology) To fail to remember.

To hit someone or something with a brick.

To support, strengthen, or retain in place by means of a block.

To make an electronic device nonfunctional and usually beyond repair, essentially making it no more useful than a brick.

To shape, mold, or form with or on a block

To blunder; to screw up.

To indicate broadly without great detail; sketch. Often used with out

A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp.

To run (trains) on a block system.

Bricks, collectively, as designating that kind of material; as, a load of brick; a thousand of brick.

To obstruct the movement of an opponent by using one's body.

Any oblong rectangular mass; as, a brick of maple sugar; a penny brick (of bread).

To stop or deflect a ball or puck by using one's body.

A good fellow; a merry person; as, you 're a brick.

To suffer a mental block. Often used with on

To lay or pave with bricks; to surround, line, or construct with bricks.

A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

To imitate or counterfeit a brick wall on, as by smearing plaster with red ocher, making the joints with an edge tool, and pointing them.

A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.

Rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln; used as a building or paving material

A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.

A good fellow; helpful and trustworthy

A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.

A case or frame housing one or more sheaves (pulleys), used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example as part of lifting gear or a sailing ship's rigging. See also block and tackle.

A section of split logs used as fuel.

A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end, forming a cuboid shape.

(falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.

(philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.

(viticulture) A discrete group of vines in a vineyard, often distinguished from others by variety, clone, canopy training method, irrigation infrastructure, or some combination thereof.

A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

(computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).

(programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.

(cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.

(chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.

(rail) A section of a railroad where the block system is used.

(computing) A contiguous range of Unicode code points used to encode characters of a specific type; can be of any size evenly divisible by 16, up to 65,536 (a full plane).

A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.

The distance from one street to another in a city or suburb that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.

A roughly cuboid building.

A cellblock.

Something that prevents something from passing.

Interference or obstruction of cognitive processes.

(sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).

A temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service, or connection to or from a designated telephone number, IP address, or similar.

(slang) The human head.

(UK) Solitary confinement.

(obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

(transitive) To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.

(transitive) To prevent (something or someone) from passing.

(transitive) To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).

To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).

To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).

To hit with a block.

To play a block shot.

(transitive) To bar (someone undesirable) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.

(transitive) To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).

To wait for some condition to become true.

(transitive) To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.

(transitive) To shape or sketch out roughly.

To knock (a person's hat) down over their eyes.

A piece of wood more or less bulky; a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc.

The solid piece of wood on which condemned persons lay their necks when they are beheaded.

The wooden mold on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A large or long building divided into separate houses or shops, or a number of houses or shops built in contact with each other so as to form one building; a row of houses or shops.

A square, or portion of a city inclosed by streets, whether occupied by buildings or not.

A grooved pulley or sheave incased in a frame or shell which is provided with a hook, eye, or strap, by which it may be attached to an object. It is used to change the direction of motion, as in raising a heavy object that can not be conveniently reached, and also, when two or more such sheaves are compounded, to change the rate of motion, or to exert increased force; - used especially in the rigging of ships, and in tackles.

The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

Any obstruction, or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle; - also called blockage; as, a block in the way; a block in an artery; a block in a nerve; a block in a biochemical pathway.

A piece of box or other wood for engravers' work.

A piece of hard wood (as mahogany or cherry) on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted to make it type high.

A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

A section of a railroad where the block system is used. See Block system, below.

In Australia, one of the large lots into which public land, when opened to settlers, is divided by the government surveyors.

The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket.

A number of individual items sold as a unit; as, a block of airline ticketes; a block of hotel rooms; a block of stock.

The length of one side of a city block{5}, traversed along any side; as, to walk three blocks ahead and turn left at the corner.

A halt in a mental process, especially one due to stress, memory lapse, confusion, etc.; as, a writer's block; to have a block in remembering a name.

A quantity of binary-encoded information transferred, or stored, as a unit to, from, or on a data storage device; as, to divide a disk into 512-byte blocks.

A number of locations in a random-access memory allocated to storage of specific data; as, to allocate a block of 1024 bytes for the stack.

To obstruct so as to prevent passage or progress; to prevent passage from, through, or into, by obstructing the way; - used both of persons and things; - often followed by up; as, to block up a road or harbor; to block an entrance.

To secure or support by means of blocks; to secure, as two boards at their angles of intersection, by pieces of wood glued to each.

To shape on, or stamp with, a block; as, to block a hat.

To cause (any activity) to halt by creating an obstruction; as, to block a nerve impulse; to block a biochemical reaction with a drug.

A solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides);

A rectangular area in a city surrounded by streets and usually containing several buildings;

A three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides

A number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit;

Housing in a large building that is divided into separate units;

(computer science) a sector or group of sectors that function as the smallest data unit permitted;

An inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension;

A simple machine consisting of a wheel with a groove in which a rope can run to change the direction or point of application of a force applied to the rope

A metal casting containing the cylinders and cooling ducts of an engine;

An obstruction in a pipe or tube;

A platform from which an auctioneer sells;

(American football) the act of obstructing someone's path with your body;

Render unsuitable for passage;

Hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of;

Stop from happening or developing;

Interfere with or prevent the reception of signals;

Run on a block system;

Interrupt the normal function of by means of anesthesia;

Shut out from view or get in the way so as to hide from sight;

Stamp or emboss a title or design on a book with a block;

Obstruct;

Block passage through;

Support, secure, or raise with a block;

Impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball);

Be unable to remember;

Shape by using a block;

Shape into a block or blocks;

Prohibit the conversion or use of (assets);

Blocks are generally better for load-bearing structures due to their size and strength.

Blocks, particularly cinder blocks, are more energy-efficient due to their insulating properties.

Bricks are primarily made of clay.

Bricks are typically used for building walls, facades, and other aesthetic elements.

No, bricks often have an attractive finish and can be left exposed, unlike blocks.

Blocks are generally not used decoratively due to their plain appearance.

Blocks are primarily made of concrete.

Producing blocks generally has a higher environmental impact due to the materials and energy used in making concrete.

Brick production involves significant energy consumption, particularly in kiln firing, but can be mitigated by using eco-friendly practices.

Variations occur due to the natural clay used and changes during the firing process in a kiln.

Yes, bricks are often used for aesthetic purposes due to their traditional appearance.

Blocks are typically used for structural foundations and large building elements.

Blocks are made by pouring concrete into molds and letting it set.

Bricks are made by forming clay and firing it in a kiln.

Yes, there are several types of blocks, including cinder blocks and retaining wall blocks, designed for specific functions.