Noun

(en noun)

The act of deviating; a wandering from the way; variation from the common way, from an established rule, etc.; departure, as from the right course or the path of duty.

The state or result of having deviated; a transgression; an act of sin; an error; an offense.

(contract law) The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from, or delay in, the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured, thus releasing the underwriters from their responsibility.

(Absolute Deviation) The shortest distance between the center of the target and the point where a projectile hits or bursts.

(statistics) For interval variables and ratio variables, a measure of difference between the observed value and the mean.

(metrology) The signed difference between a value and its reference value.

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.