Noun

(en noun)

The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.

:

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=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.}}

An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each-other.

:

* (1800-1859)

*:As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them.

*(Richard Chenevix Trench) (1807-1886)

*:The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison .

*

*:"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."

With a negation, the state of being similar or alike.

:

(label) The ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees, as in hot, hotter, hottest .

That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.

*(Bible), (w) iv. 30

*:Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?

(label) A simile.

(label) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.

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.