difference
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɪf(ə)ɹəns/
Forms: form: differences
Etymology: From Middle English difference, from Old French difference, from Latin differentia (“difference”), from differēns (“different”), present participle of differre. Doublet of differentia. Morphologically differ + -ence.
Senses: examples: text: You need to learn to be more tolerant of difference.
antonyms: identity
sameness
glosses: The quality of being different.
examples: text: There are three differences between these two pictures.
text: But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:
glosses: A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
examples: text: We have our little differences, but we are firm friends.
text: What was the difference? It was a contention in public.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
text: Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
ref: 1714, Thomas Ellwood, The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood: written by his own hand:
glosses: A disagreement or argument.
examples: text: It just won't make much difference to me.
text: It just won't make much of a difference to anyone.
text: The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.
ref: 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
text: As she did so Fanny put down her book , stood up and stretched her arms, and at once Jessamy noticed a difference. It was the same Fanny but not the Fanny who climbed trees and tore her frock playing in the garden. It was as though a young lady film had settled over her, neatening her unruly hair, which was tied back with a large black bow, and primly composing her small mouth.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 105:
glosses: Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
examples: text: The difference between 3 and 21 is 18.
glosses: The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
examples: text: That now be chooseth with vile difference
 To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: Choice; preference.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
qualifier: logic circuits
glosses: A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB).
topics: algebra
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B).
Synonyms: sense: characteristic of something that makes it different from something else
word: departure
sense: characteristic of something that makes it different from something else
word: deviation
sense: characteristic of something that makes it different from something else
word: divergence
sense: characteristic of something that makes it different from something else
word: disparity
sense: disagreement or argument about something important
word: conflict
sense: disagreement or argument about something important
word: difference of opinion
sense: disagreement or argument about something important
word: dispute
sense: disagreement or argument about something important
word: dissension
sense: result of a subtraction
word: remainder
sense: significant change in state
word: nevermind
word: difference
word: diversity
Hyponyms: word: antithesis
word: dissimilarity
word: variety
Derived terms: age difference
antidifference
as near as makes no difference
common difference
creative differences
deflection difference
diff
difference engine
difference equation
difference gate
difference maker
difference-maker
difference-making
difference of two squares
difference quotient
difference set
distinction without a difference
electric potential difference
equidifference
finite difference
goal difference
know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow
learning difference
make a difference
make all the difference
make the difference
mass difference
nondifference
photodifference
point of difference
potential difference
same difference
set-theoretic difference
size difference
split the difference
spot the difference
symmetric difference
tell the difference
time difference
undifferenced
vive la difference
what's the difference
world of difference
Related terms: word: successor
sense: addition, summation
english: addend; total
translation: addend; total
alt: augend
word: + =
sense: addition, summation
english: sum
translation: sum
alt: summand
word: + +... =
sense: subtraction
roman: subtrahend
english: difference
translation: difference
word: − =
sense: multiplication, factorization; multiplier
roman: multiplicand
english: product
translation: product
word: × =
sense: multiplication, factorization; factor
english: factor; factor; product
translation: factor; factor; product
word: × ×... =
sense: division; dividend
roman: quotient
word: ÷ =
sense: numerator) / (denominator) = (quotient
english: with remaining
translation: with remaining
alt: quotient
word: Or sometimes
sense: exponentiation; base
english: power
translation: power
alt: exponent
word: =
sense: root extraction; degree
roman: radicand
word: √ =
sense: logarithmization
english: logarithm
translation: logarithm
alt: antilogarithm
word: log(base) =