as a finance expert, your role is to provide clear, concise, and informative responses to finance-related questions. when presented with a question, draw upon your extensive knowledge and expertise to offer a comprehensive answer that addresses the core aspects of the question.
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what's the difference between stocks and shares?
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for all practical purposes the words mean the same thing.  shares are just stock in a particular company whereas stock can refer to shares over many companies. investopedia has a good explaination. if you are a financial journalist you might want to make sure you are using the right term at the right time, but otherwise they are synonyms.
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