comparison

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English

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Etymology

Borrowed from Old French comparison, from Latin comparātiō, from comparātus, perfect passive participle of comparō.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

comparison (countable and uncountable, plural comparisons)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
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      As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them.
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      The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.
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      "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. […]"
  3. 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.
  4. (grammar) The ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees, as in hot, hotter, hottest.
  5. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
    • Bible, Mark iv. 30
      Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?
  6. (rhetoric) A simile.
  7. (phrenology) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Anagrams

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin comparātiō[1].

Noun

comparison oblique singular, f (oblique plural comparisons, nominative singular comparison, nominative plural comparisons)

  1. comparison (instance of comparing two or more things)

Descendants

  • → English: comparison
  • French: comparaison
  • Norman: compathaison

References

  1. ^ Etymology and history of “comparaison”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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