analogy
English
Etymology
From Latin analogia, from Ancient Greek ἀναλογία (analogía), from ἀνά (aná) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, reckoning”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: /-ˈnæləd͡ʒi/: enallage
Noun
analogy (countable and uncountable, plural analogies)
- A relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.
- 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter 6, in Essays: First Series:
- Yet the systole and diastole of the heart are not without their analogy in the ebb and flow of love.
- 1869, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in The Uncommercial Traveller:
- Is there any analogy, in certain constitutions, between keeping an umbrella up, and keeping the spirits up?
- 1901, Edith Wharton, chapter 12, in The Valley of Decision:
- The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo.
- 1983, "How to Write Programs," Time, 3 Jan.:
- Perhaps the easiest way to think of it is in terms of a simple analogy: hardware is to software as a television set is to the shows that appear on it.
- 2002, Harlan Coben, Gone for Good, →ISBN, page 75:
- A kid living on the street is a bit like — and please pardon the analogy here — a weed.
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- (geometry) The proportion or the equality of ratios.
- (grammar) The correspondence of a word or phrase with the genius of a language, as learned from the manner in which its words and phrases are ordinarily formed; similarity of derivative or inflectional processes.
Derived terms
- disanalogy
- false analogy
- proportional analogy
- violinist analogy
Related terms
- analogue
Translations
relationship of resemblance or equivalence
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geometry: proportion or the equality of ratios
grammar: similarity of derivative or inflectional processes
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See also
- metaphor
- simile
- example
- homology
- parable
- parallelism