Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
- noun A comparison based on such similarity.
- noun Biology Correspondence in function or position between organs of dissimilar evolutionary origin or structure.
- noun A form of reasoning based on the assumption that if two things are known to be alike in some respects, then they are probably alike in other respects.
- noun Linguistics The process by which words or morphemes are re-formed or created on the model of existing grammatical patterns in a language, often leading to greater regularity in paradigms, as evidenced by helped replacing holp and holpen as the past tense and past participle of help on the model of verbs such as yelp, yelped, yelped.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In mathematics, an equation between ratios.
- noun An agreement, likeness, or proportion between the relations of things to one another; hence, often, agreement or likeness of things themselves.
- noun Specifically In logic, a form of reasoning in which, from the similarity of two or more things in certain particulars, their similarity in other particulars is inferred.
- noun In grammar, conformity to the spirit, structure, or general rules of a language; similarity as respects any of the characteristics of a language, as derivation, inflection, spelling, pronunciation, etc.
- noun In biology, resemblance without affinity; physiological or adaptive likeness between things morphologically or structurally unlike: the opposite of
homology .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus, learning
enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind whatlight is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden. - noun (Biol.) A relation or correspondence in function, between organs or parts which are decidedly different.
- noun (Geom.) Proportion; equality of ratios.
- noun (Gram.) Conformity of words to the genius, structure, or general rules of a language; similarity of origin, inflection, or principle of pronunciation, and the like, as opposed to
anomaly .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
relationship ofresemblance orequivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis forexplanation orextrapolation .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others
- noun drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect
- noun the religious belief that between creature and creator no similarity can be found so great but that the dissimilarity is always greater; any analogy between God and humans will always be inadequate
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The inference of intelligence from marks of design in nature is not one of analogy, but of strict and proper _induction_; and accordingly we must either deny that there are marks of _design_ in nature, thereby discarding the _analogy_, or do violence to our own reason by resisting the fundamental law of causality, thereby discarding the inductive inference.
Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837
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Dr. Priestley founds, not on the _resemblance or analogy, _ but on the _essential difference_, between created and uncreated intelligence; but, in point of fact, the _difference_, great and real as it is, has no bearing on the only question at issue; it is the _resemblance or analogy_ between all thinking beings and the
Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837
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As for the cost of setting these things up - the Mr and Mrs Britain analogy is a good one.
The Union Dividend Jeff 2007
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But what I take Wittgenstein to be suggesting is: Take the label analogy seriously; and then you'll see how little of language is like that.
"The feminist movement has a right to define what constitutes being a member, and I'm not going to appropriate their label if it bothers them..." Ann Althouse 2008
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Hence, Whately uses the term analogy as an expression for the similarity of relation, and in this regard the use of analogy for our real work has no special significance.
Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911
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The word analogy has appeared in 239 New York Times articles in the past year, including on Oct. 18 in "Not Such a Stretch to Reach for the Stars," by Kenneth Chang:
NYT > Home Page By THE LEARNING NETWORK 2011
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Neither analogy is accurate, neither brings our country honor.
Robert Slayton: AMERICAN TRAGEDY Robert Slayton 2010
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Neither analogy is accurate, neither brings our country honor.
Robert Slayton: AMERICAN TRAGEDY Robert Slayton 2010
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Your analogy is also pretty screwed, I think even Bob81 would agree with me on that one.
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009
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Your analogy is also pretty screwed, I think even Bob81 would agree with me on that one.
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009
uselessness commented on the word analogy
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
January 25, 2007
ruzuzu commented on the word analogy
"In mathematics, an equation between ratios. This use is obsolete except in a few phrases, as Napier's analogies, which are four important formulas of spherical trigonometry."
--CD&C
February 13, 2013