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Analogy vs Equivalency - What's the difference?

analogy | equivalency |

As nouns the difference between analogy and equivalency

is that analogy is a relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation while equivalency is (countable) an equivalent thing.

analogy

Noun

(analogies)
  • A relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.
  • * 1841 , , Essays: First Series , ch. 6:
  • Yet the systole and diastole of the heart are not without their analogy in the ebb and flow of love.
  • * 1869 , , The Uncommercial Traveller , ch. 18:
  • Is there any analogy , in certain constitutions, between keeping an umbrella up, and keeping the spirits up?
  • * 1901 , , The Valley of Decision , ch. 12:
  • 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 , , Gone for Good , ISBN 9780440236733, p. 75:
  • A kid living on the street is a bit like — and please pardon the analogy here — a weed.

    Derived terms

    * disanalogy * false analogy

    See also

    * metaphor * simile * example * homology * parable * parallelism English words prefixed with ana-

    equivalency

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Noun

  • (countable) An equivalent thing.
  • (uncountable) equivalence