Advert and Revert are sometimes confused because of a similar basic meaning when they are used in reference to discourse or contemplation.
Advert denotes to turn from the point, topic, or incident under consideration in order to take up another. It sometimes suggests an unconscious or an illogical break in the chain of thought, but in highly discriminating use may still retain its primary implication of heeding or taking notice.
- we are but too apt to consider things in the state in which we find them, without sufficiently adverting to the causes by which they have been produced
—Burke - the distinction . . . will be rendered more apparent by adverting to that provision in the second section . . . of the constitution
—John Marshall
Revert adds to advert the implication of return either consciously or unconsciously to a point or topic already discussed or previously in one’s mind.
- he now drops this idea, and reverts to his reasoning on death
—Goldsmith