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Analogy vs Parallel - What's the difference?

analogy | parallel | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between analogy and parallel

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 parallel is one of a set of parallel lines.

As an adjective parallel is

equally distant from one another at all points.

As an adverb parallel is

with a parallel relationship.

As a verb parallel is

to construct or place something parallel to something else.

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-

    parallel

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Equally distant from one another at all points.
  • The horizontal lines on my notebook paper are parallel .
  • * Hakluyt
  • revolutions parallel to the equinoctial
  • Having the same overall direction; the comparison is indicated with "to".
  • The railway line runs parallel to the road.
    The two railway lines are parallel .
  • * Addison
  • When honour runs parallel with the laws of God and our country, it cannot be too much cherished.
  • (hyperbolic geometry) said of a pair of lines:'' that they either do not intersect or they coincide Jos Leys — ''The hyperbolic chamber (paragraph 8)
  • (computing) Involving the processing of multiple tasks at the same time
  • a parallel algorithm

    Antonyms

    * perpendicular, skew, serial

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • With a parallel relationship.
  • The road runs parallel with the canal.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One of a set of parallel lines.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Who made the spider parallels design, / Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
  • Direction conformable to that of another line.
  • * Garth
  • lines that from their parallel decline
  • A line of latitude.
  • The 31st parallel passes through the center of my town.
  • An arrangement of electrical components such that a current flows along two or more paths; see in parallel.
  • Something identical or similar in essential respects.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • None but thyself can be thy parallel .
  • A comparison made; elaborate tracing of similarity.
  • Johnson's parallel between Dryden and Pope
  • (military) One of a series of long trenches constructed before a besieged fortress, by the besieging force, as a cover for troops supporting the attacking batteries. They are roughly parallel to the line of outer defenses of the fortress.
  • (printing) A character consisting of two parallel vertical lines, used in the text to direct attention to a similarly marked note in the margin or at the foot of a page.
  • Antonyms

    * perpendicular, skew (?)

    Verb

  • To construct or place something parallel to something else.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
  • The needle doth parallel and place itself upon the true meridian.
  • Of a path etc: To be parallel to something else.
  • Of a process etc: To be analogous to something else.
  • To compare or liken something to something else.
  • To make to conform to something else in character, motive, aim, etc.
  • * Shakespeare
  • His life is parallelled / Even with the stroke and line of his great justice.
  • To equal; to match; to correspond to.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • To produce or adduce as a parallel.
  • * Shakespeare
  • My young remembrance cannot parallel / A fellow to it.
    (John Locke)

    Derived terms

    * embarrassingly parallel * forty-ninth parallel * parallel algorithm * parallel circuit * parallel computing * parallelism * parallelogram * parallel universe * unparalleled

    See also

    * sequential

    References

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