comparison
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kəmpăr'ĭsən
ipa: /kəmˈpɛɹɪsən/
ipa: /kəmˈpæɹɪsən/
ipa: /kəmˈpaɹɪsən/
enpr: kəmpăr'ĭshən
ipa: /kəmˈpæɹɪʃən/
Forms: form: comparisons
Etymology: From Middle English comparisoun, from Old French comparison, from Latin comparātiō, from comparātus, perfect passive participle of comparō.
Senses: examples: text: to bring a thing into comparison with another
text: there is no comparison between them
text: Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
synonyms: parallel
glosses: The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.
examples: text: He made a careful comparison of the available products before buying anything.
text: As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear a comparison with them.
ref: 1841, Thomas Macaulay, Warren Hastings:
text: The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.
ref: 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord:
text: "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve.[…]"
ref: 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:
glosses: An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each other.
examples: text: There really is no comparison between the performance of today's computers and those of a decade ago.
glosses: With a negation, the state of being similar or alike.
examples: text: In English, adjectives and adverbs have three forms when making a comparison: the plain form "hot", the comparative form "hotter", and the superlative form "hottest".
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe.
examples: text: Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 4:30:
glosses: That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
glosses: A simile.
topics: human-sciences
medicine
phrenology
psychology
sciences
glosses: The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.
Hypernyms: topics: grammar
linguistics
human-sciences
sciences
word: inflection
Derived terms: beyond comparison
by comparison
comparing and contrasting
comparison is the thief of joy
comparisonitis
comparison operator
comparisons are odious
comparison-shop
comparison shop
comparison shopper
comparison shopping
comparison-shopping
comparisonwise
degree of comparison
in comparison
intercomparison
limit comparison test
megalocomparison
multicomparison
no comparison
pale in comparison
recomparison
standard of comparison
suffer by comparison
Related terms: comparable
comparative
comparator
compare