Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Unlike in form, quality, amount, or nature; dissimilar: took different approaches to the problem.
- adj. Distinct or separate: That's a different issue altogether.
- adj. Various or assorted: interviewed different members of the community.
- adj. Differing from all others; unusual: a different point of view.
- adv. In a different way or manner; otherwise: "Carol ... didn't know different until Elinor told her” ( Ben Brantley).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not the same; two; many; plural; also, characterized by a difference or distinction; various or contrary in nature, form, or quality; unlike; dissimilar.
- [When in the predicate, different is either used absolutely: as, the two things are very different; or followed by from: as, the two things are very different from each other; he is very different from his brother. But the relation of opposition is often lost in that of mere comparison, leading to the use of to instead of from. This use is regarded as colloquial or incorrect, and is generally avoided by careful writers.
- Synonyms Different, Distinct, Separate, Several. These words agree in being the opposite of same. Different applies to nature or quality as well as to state of being: as, the African and Asiatic climates are very different. The other three words are primarily physical, and are still affected by that fact: we speak of distinct or separate, ideas, colors, sounds, etc. Several is used chiefly of those things which are in some sense together without merging their identity: as, three several bands.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not the same; exhibiting a difference
- adj. Various, assorted, diverse.
- adj. Distinct, separate; used for emphasis after numbers and other determiners of quantity.
- adj. Unlike most others; unusual.
- n. mathematics The different ideal.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Distinct; separate; not the same; other.
- adj. Of various or contrary nature, form, or quality; partially or totally unlike; dissimilar.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unlike in nature or quality or form or degree
- adj. marked by dissimilarity
- adj. distinctly separate from the first
- adj. differing from all others; not ordinary
- adj. distinct or separate
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Latin differēns, present active participle of differō ("I differ"); see differ. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin differēns, different-, present participle of differre, to differ; see differ. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The different kinden races were also neat..different in a way that was cool, but done in a way that they felt familiar.”
“Obviously, groups related to different races have *different* needs and come from *different* backgrounds.”
“Where the parents are of different varieties or species, Mr. Walker says, "The second law, namely, that of CROSSING, operates where each parent is of a _different breed_, and where, supposing both to be of equal age and vigor the _male_ gives the _back head_ and _locomotive organs_, and the _female_ the _face_ and _nutritive organs_.”
“Those of the north, and south, are _somewhat_ different; but I am informed the country to the S.W. of the Allegany Mountains is _materially different_.”
“One of these girls, Miss Peachy Millmore, was different from the others, different from any girl Claude had ever known.”
“An exceptionally precise speaker might doubtless make some slight difference in the sounds indicated by the different modes of representing the same syllable as given above; but to the ordinary appreciation of childhood the distinction in sound between such combinations, for example, as _a n t_ in _constant_ and _e n t_ in _different_ would not be perceptible.”
“But when we wish to compare discharge of different kinds, for the important purpose of ascertaining whether the same amount of current will in its _different forms_ produce the same amount of transverse action, we find the data very imperfect.”
“In lyrics, however, they are freely crossed, but with this restriction, that one rhyme of either kind is never found next to a different one of the same kind, i.e., two _different_ masculines or feminines are never found in juxtaposition.”
“The two candidates represented two different management styles and two different personality types.”
“But then we decided to have a child, and that was a different story that would necessitate a different story.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘different’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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Politically Correct Terms
It's fun to find the politically incorrect equivalents. To see more (lesser common but still funny ones) check http://www.bored.com/pcphrases/
fellow Muslims, ageing population, gender mainstreaming, emerging democracies, mentally challeng..., intellectually di..., African American, native American, first nations, Caucasian, firefighter, police officer and 205 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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Creative List
Words that evoke creativity
creativity, accidental, serendipity, chance, innocence, child, imagination, intuition, Steve jobs, Michaelangelo, Bach, Escher and 28 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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ttobba's Words
graph, amore, labrador, sun, boreal, norsk, coffee, cafe, pekin, peking, train, rail and 97 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Cage
cage, depart, nothing, void, strain, unconscious, never, alone, floor, God, hell, winter and 219 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o..., abject,utterly ho... and 2228 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., dispensing of all..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o... and 2229 more...
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Rhymeless.
From wikipedia: "The following is a list of English words without rhymes, i.e. a list of words in the English language which rhyme with no other English words in the sense that they are pronounced ...
almond, angry, angst, anxious, aspirin, bachelor, breadth, bulb, bulbous, calumny, cannabis, caveat and 49 more...
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TN5 Lesson 56
traveled, Maine, have been to, not at all, different, ski, resort, Switzerland, southern, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and 22 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for different.
bilby This list of Verbs-Prepositions might help some people. Nov 10, 2008
pterodactyl I think you're probably right, VO:
- there is a symmetrical/asymmetrical distinction that's worth preserving, and
- it is definitely time for something completely different. Nov 8, 2008
vanishedone I just want to add a note about other, before someone asks: on the face of it 'X is other than Y' does look equivalent to 'Y is other than X', maybe because it looks like a statement of non-identity, and identity is symmetrical. However, whereas XY (X and Y together) is clearly non-identical to X, it doesn't seem other than X, since it incorporates X; whereas X does seem to me to be other than XY, or at least sometimes so, on the assumption that e.g. my liver is other than me, since it could be a functioning transplanted organ in someone else after 'I' have ceased to be. However, I appreciate that needs further tightening up (am I maybe just conflating senses of other?); am I boring anyone yet? Maybe we should stop trying to save pterodactyl and try something completely different... Nov 7, 2008
reesetee All right--who's the wag who tagged this page "Monty Python"? :-) Nov 7, 2008
vanishedone I agree that difference is about emphasising a metaphorical distance--hence my place in the from camp. But I further contended that usage of than in all suggested cases other than for different is not merely about difference but reflects a logical distinction between symmetrical and asymmetrical relationships: than appears in cases where the difference is expressed asymmetrically ('X is different from Y' is logically equivalent to 'Y is different from X'; 'X is greater than Y' isn't equivalent to 'Y is greater than X'). Once you extend than to symmetrical cases, it seems no less arbitrary to me to resist extending it to logically equivalent symmetrical cases ('X is different than Y and not similar than Y').
There's no Académie anglaise to prevent your making arbitrary choices to suit your sense of euphony, just as there's no authority to persuade me that 'the rules are different for men from those for women' is an unworkably clumsy construction (I already speak a language that uses the in order + inf. construction; am I right in thinking Chaucer's for to seeke is equivalent to French pour + inf., and we've somehow lost it?); but treating different and rather as expressing the same kind of difference seems to me logically mistaken, not just syntactically/semantically. Of course, as a philosophy postgrad. I have a particular interest in preserving any logical distinctions expressed in syntax. Nov 7, 2008
chained_bear "Different from" seems to be best used when it's followed by an object of the preposition. "Different than" seems to be used when it's followed by a situation. (As in sionnach's examples.) Nov 7, 2008
bilby Thank you, sionnach, for the mea culpa. 25 points have been deducted.
I note that your bicycle impersonations are still manifestly inadequate. Nov 7, 2008
sionnach I retract my earlier blanket pronouncement, due to sentences like the following:
The rules are different for men than for women.
His financial situation while he was living in Princeton was quite different than when he was in Chicago.
But I still prefer 'different from' whenever possible. Nov 7, 2008
pterodactyl I have to agree with the Chicago Manual. There are some constructions that just don't allow you to use "different from", and in these cases, "different than" is the only possible substitute.
In response to VanishedOne: I'd argue that the choice of "than" to follow rather, other, and different is not based just on syntax, but also on semantics. To my ear, the word than gives a sense of differentiation, of distinguishing between two things. Likewise, the meanings of rather, other, and different all have to do with distinguishing two things, setting them apart from each other. The meaning of similar is quite the opposite: calling two things "similar" makes them less distinguishable, draws them closer together.
So, "similar than" is a contradiction.
What do you think?
Nov 7, 2008
reesetee Here's what Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) says, for what it's worth: "The phrasing different from is generally preferable to different than this company is different from that one, but sometimes the adverbial phrase different than is all but required she described the scene differently than he did." No mention of "different to."
Sometimes you can avoid making the choice completely by using the verb "differ(s)"--then you're forced to use "from." I try to do that so as not to make myself crazier than I already am. :-) Nov 7, 2008
dontcry I beg to differ...
"A sionnach is different as a bicycle." Nov 7, 2008
sionnach A sionnach is different from a bicycle. No other possibility is admissible. Case closed. Nov 7, 2008
yarb I second chained_bear's comment. Nov 6, 2008
chained_bear I second yarb's comment. Nov 6, 2008
vanishedone Off the top of my head: the rather/other cases, like those with scales of comparison, seem to involve evaluating one thing against the standard set by another, relative to a given difference: e.g. X is cheaper than Y, so we'll buy X rather than Y (where Y is the standard). Whereas an assertion of difference doesn't involve comparing X with Y in respect of some difference, but rather asserting the respect in which they differ itself: difference is a symmetrical relationship (if X differs from Y, then Y differs from X to the same extent), whereas than is maybe suited to asymmetrical cases: if X is greater than Y, Y is lesser than X.
My diabolical advocacy in turn: if 'different than', also 'similar than'? Difference and similarity are both symmetrical relationships; they express degrees of resemblance... Nov 6, 2008
pterodactyl The overwhelming sentiment on this page seems to be against "different than", so let me play devil's advocate for a moment: what about "other than" and "rather than"? Are they acceptable? And if they are, what's the relevant difference between them and "different than"? Nov 6, 2008
pterodactyl Wow... some excellent analyses on this page -- thanks, guys!
Yes, qroqqa, I can confirm from experience that most American speakers do not have "different to", and of the two options we do have, "different than" is by far the most popular. I rarely hear "different from", and when I do, it's usually in formal settings only. Nov 6, 2008
frindley But bilby, Rumpelstiltskin is different. Nov 6, 2008
qroqqa Adjectives that are comparative in form can take a special kind of clause complement, the comparative clause:
This crossword is easier than it used to be.
This bicycle is faster than it used to be.
'Different' is semantically parallel, though not formally comparative, so it is natural by analogy to use it with comparative clauses:
?This situation is different than it used to be.
I use that, though I'm more likely to phrase it with 'to'/'from' and a noun phrase (namely a fused relative, a clause attached to a wh-word):
This situation is different to/from what it used to be.
Analogy doesn't always work, because while both 'to' and 'from' are acceptable with the adjective, the verb only takes 'from'.
*This one differs to that.
This is all modulo dialect differences: 'different than ' is not grammatical in my (standard BrE) and similar dialects. And apparently some speakers don't have 'different to', according to pterodactyl. Nov 6, 2008
bilby Cordigal! Must be an Australian foible *blushes* Nov 6, 2008
plethora That sounds like my cousin learning to say cordial, elgiad.
He would repeat each syllable after his mother perfectly, but when the time came to say the whole word it was always cordigal. Nov 6, 2008
bilby The real sin here was not listing this on Word-Offs, ptero. 50 points have been deducted.
Nov 6, 2008
yarb Different from! From! Argh! Nov 6, 2008
elgiad007 I'll never forgot how my stepson used to pronounce the word "different" (he was about 4 years old): drinfent. It took many tries, but he finally got it.
Me: "Say it slowly, diff-er-ent."
Him: "Diff-er-ent....drinfent!" Nov 6, 2008
bilby 'The situation is different than it used to be' looks passing ugly to me, and verging on meaninglessness. Different seems more an adjective (positive) rather a comparative which is where I think the difficulty creeps in. How can one compare 'the situation' to 'it used to be'? The problem is that different has the air of a comparative.
Consider these examples:
'A sionnach is different to a bicycle.'
'A sionnach is different from a bicycle.'
'A sionnach is different than a bicycle.' *hork*
Now put a genuine comparative (eg. faster, cheaper, more fun, sillier, etc.) in the place of different and see what happens.
'A sionnach is faster to a bicycle.' *hork*
'A sionnach is faster from a bicycle.' *hork*
'A sionnach is faster than a bicycle.'
The approach of considering different an adjective is vexed, however, because it can perform awkwardly. eg.
Rumpelstiltskin is funny.
Rumpelstiltskin is different. *hork*
You could also go back to the verbal form and see what that tells us:
'Frogs differ from zombies.'
'Frogs differ to zombies.'
'Frogs differ than zombies.' *hork*
With to, I would say 'different to what it used to be'. Nov 6, 2008
vanishedone From for me; I tend to associate than with degrees of comparison, hence a narrower sense than difference generally construed. Nov 6, 2008
pterodactyl I ask because I'm considering switching my personal usage from "different from" to "different than", in order to allow constructions such as "The situation is different than it used to be." (The equivalent construction using "from" is "The situation is different from how it used to be", which sounds clumsy.)
I'm especially interested in "different to", which I never hear in the US, but which presents itself as a tantalizing third option. How would "to" fit into the above example? Nov 6, 2008
pterodactyl A quick poll: which of the following do you use?
- "different from"
- "different than"
- "different to" Nov 6, 2008