What is the difference between a stock and a share?

General
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The difference between the two words comes from the context in which they are used.

For example, “stock” is a general term used to describe the ownership certificates of any company, in general, and “shares” refers to a the ownership certificates of a particular company. So, if investors say they own stocks, they are generally referring to their overall ownership in one or more companies. Technically, if someone says that they own shares - the question then becomes - shares in what company?

Bottom line, stocks and shares are the same thing. The minor distinction between stocks and shares is usually overlooked, and it has more to do with syntax than financial or legal accuracy.

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Stock means a literal “STOCK”…think of any books or mobile, you hear “Out of Stock”. Same applies here too.

Here Stock means Capital Stock (Stock of companies’ shares or Commodity Stock). That is why it’s called stock market(or capital market where companies gain capital from market). Shares is term used to describe the ownership in a company. If you hold/buy a shares of company means, you are owner of the company(but size of shares matters here). The more number of shares you own, the more you are owner to the company.

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The Definition of a Stock 
Plain and simple, stock is a share in the ownership of a company. Stock represents a claim on the company's assets and earnings. As you acquire more stock, your ownership stake in the company becomes greater. Whether you say shares, equity, or stock, it all means the same thing.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/university/stocks/stocks1.asp

DEFINITION OF 'SHARES'

A unit of ownership interest in a corporation or financial asset.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shares.asp

In my opinion, the term stock is used as a whole while the term share/shares refer to the subdivided units of a capital.

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Many of the newbie were confused for this, but above links help us…

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There are two main types of stock: common and preferred. Common stock usually entitles the owner to vote at shareholders' meetings and to receive dividends. Preferred stock generally does not have voting rights, but has a higher claim on assets and earnings than the common shares.Shares can be broadly divided into two categories - equity and preference shares. Equity shares give their holders the power to share the earnings/profits in the company as well as a vote in the AGMs of the company. Such a shareholder has to share the profits and also bear the losses incurred by the company. 

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Yeah. thanks.
We say 500 shares and not 500 stocks. :slight_smile: