comparison
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French comparison, from Latin comparātiō, from comparātus, perfect passive participle of comparō.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /kəmˈpɛɹɪsən/, /kəmˈpæɹɪsən/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kəmˈpæɹɪsən/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
comparison (countable and uncountable, plural comparisons)
- The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.
- to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them
- 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- 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.
- An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each-other.
- He made a careful comparison of the available products before buying anything.
- (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay
- As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them.
- (Can we date this quote?) Richard Chenevix Trench
- The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.
- 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:
- "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. […]"
- With a negation, the state of being similar or alike.
- There really is no comparison between the performance of today's computers and those of a decade ago.
- (grammar) The ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees, as in hot, hotter, hottest.
- That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
- (rhetoric) A simile.
- (phrenology) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.
Related terms
- comparable
- comparative
- comparator
- compare
- suffer by comparison
- there is no comparison between them
Translations
act of comparing or the state of being compared
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evaluation of the similarities and differences of two (or more) things
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state of being similar or alike
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ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Old French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin comparātiō[1].
Noun
comparison f (oblique plural comparisons, nominative singular comparison, nominative plural comparisons)
- comparison (instance of comparing two or more things)
Descendants
- English: comparison (borrowed)
- French: comparaison
- Norman: compathaison
References
- “comparaison” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
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