Differences
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dif·fer·ence
(dĭf′ər-əns, dĭf′rəns)n.
1. The quality or condition of being unlike or dissimilar.
2.
a. An instance of disparity or unlikeness: There is a big difference in sound between a clarinet and an oboe.
b. A degree or amount by which things differ: a difference in height of three inches.
3. A noticeable change or effect: Exercise has made a difference in her health.
4. A disagreement or controversy: Let's settle our differences.
5. Discrimination in taste or choice; distinction: In this case, the law should make no difference between young and old.
6. Mathematics
a. The amount by which one quantity is greater or less than another.
b. The amount that remains after one quantity is subtracted from another.
tr.v. dif·fer·enced, dif·fer·enc·ing, dif·fer·enc·es
To distinguish or differentiate.
Synonyms: difference, dissimilarity, unlikeness, divergence, variation, distinction, discrepancy
These nouns refer to a lack of correspondence or agreement. Difference is the most general: differences in color and size; a difference of degree but not of kind.
Dissimilarity and unlikeness often suggest a wide or fundamental difference: the dissimilarity between human and computer language; attracted to each other by their very unlikeness.
However, dissimilarity is also used to emphasize the points of difference between things that are otherwise alike or comparable: an analysis of the dissimilarities between the two sets of data.
Divergence can denote a difference resulting from a branching or separation; alternatively, it can indicate a range of difference within a category: the growing divergence between British and American English; a large group with a divergence of opinions on the subject.
Variation occurs between things of the same class or species; often it refers to a modification of something original, prescribed, or typical: variations in temperature; a variation of a familiar technique.
Distinction often means a difference in detail determinable only by close inspection: the distinction between "good" and "excellent."
A discrepancy is a difference between things that should correspond or match: a discrepancy between his words and his actions.
These nouns refer to a lack of correspondence or agreement. Difference is the most general: differences in color and size; a difference of degree but not of kind.
Dissimilarity and unlikeness often suggest a wide or fundamental difference: the dissimilarity between human and computer language; attracted to each other by their very unlikeness.
However, dissimilarity is also used to emphasize the points of difference between things that are otherwise alike or comparable: an analysis of the dissimilarities between the two sets of data.
Divergence can denote a difference resulting from a branching or separation; alternatively, it can indicate a range of difference within a category: the growing divergence between British and American English; a large group with a divergence of opinions on the subject.
Variation occurs between things of the same class or species; often it refers to a modification of something original, prescribed, or typical: variations in temperature; a variation of a familiar technique.
Distinction often means a difference in detail determinable only by close inspection: the distinction between "good" and "excellent."
A discrepancy is a difference between things that should correspond or match: a discrepancy between his words and his actions.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Differences
- Alike as the gap between Little League and Major League —Anon
- Alike as an oil portrait and a polaroid snapshot —Anon
- Alike as a cliche and a sonnet —Rod MacLeish, National Public Radio, December 29, 1986
In his obituary on mystery writer John MacDonald, MacLeish used the simile to point out the difference between MacDonald’s Travis McGee character with Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.
- Alike as a mom and pop grocery store and a multi-national corporation —Anon
- Alike as an abacus and a computer —Anon
- Alike as an elephant and a giraffe —Anon
- Alike as grains of sand —Anon
- Alike as human faces —Anon
- Alike as six pebbles on the beach —Eudora Welty
- Alike as the gap between doing a gig at a neighborhood wedding and being on prime time TV —Anon
- Alike as an apple is to a lobster —John Ray’s Proverbs
A variation on the same theme, also from John Ray’s Proverbs is “As alike as an apple is to an oyster.” Other entries in this section merely hint at the endless twists possible.
- As like this as a crab’s like an apple —William Shakespeare
Here we have the above simile turned around, with the apple the comparison.
- (In this world it is rarely possible to settle matters with an “either, or,” since there are) as many gradations of emotion and conduct as there are stages between a hooked nose and one that turns up —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Different as a moonbeam from lightning, as frost from fire —Emily Brontë
- (You and I are as) different as chalk and cheese —John Ray’s Proverbs
- Opposite as yea and nay —Francis Quarles
- (Two faces) different as hot and cold —Dannie Abse
- Different as three men singing the same chorus from three men playing three tunes on the same piano —G. K. Chesterton
- Different as yin from yang —Harry Prince
- Everything has in fact another side to it, like the moon —G. K. Chesterton
- Sharply defined as salt and pepper —Anon
- The difference between vivacity and wit is the same as the difference between the lightning-bug and lightning —Josh Billings
- Various as the fancies of men in pursuit of a wife —James Ralph
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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