What is the difference between difference and different?
difference | different |
(uncountable) The quality of being different.
(countable) A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist)
(countable) A disagreement or argument.
* Shakespeare
* T. Ellwood
(countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
(countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
(obsolete) Choice; preference.
* Spenser
(heraldry) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
(logic) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
(logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation ().
(relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another ().
To distinguish or differentiate.
Not the same; exhibiting a difference.
*
* 1971 , William S. Burroughs, , page 6
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Various, assorted, diverse.
* 2006 , Delbert S. Elliott et al., Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521863575, page 19:
Distinct, separate; (used for emphasis after numbers and other determiners of quantity).
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= Unlike most others; unusual.
Different is a related term of difference.
As nouns the difference between difference and different
is that difference is the quality of being different while different is the different ideal.As a verb difference
is to distinguish or differentiate.As an adjective different is
not the same; exhibiting a difference.difference
English
Noun
citation, passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
- We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.
- What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.
- Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
- The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.
- That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
Synonyms
* (characteristic of something that makes it different from something else) departure, deviation, divergence * (disagreement or argument about something important) conflict, difference of opinion, dispute, dissension * (result of a subtraction) remainder * (significant change in state) nevermindAntonyms
* (quality of being different) identity, samenessDerived terms
* distinction without a difference * creative differences * difference engine * difference equation * difference gate * difference of two squares * goal difference * same difference * split the difference * spot the difference * tell the differenceSee also
* addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total) * subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference) * multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product) * division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividendVerb
(differenc)- (en)
Synonyms
* (to distinguish or differentiate) differentiate, distinguishExternal links
* * ----different
English
(wikipedia different)Adjective
(en adjective)- Enter the American tourist. He thinks of himself as a good guy but when he looks in the mirror to shave this good guy he has to admit that "well, other people are different from me and I don't really like them." This makes him feel guilty toward other people.
Ian Sample
Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
- In any case, poor black respondents living in high-poverty neighborhoods are most likely to view their neighborhood as a single block or block group and to use this definition consistently when asked about different neighborhood characteristics and activities.
Charles T. Ambrose
Alzheimer’s Disease, volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.}}
Usage notes
* (not the same) Depending on dialect, time period, and register, the adjective may be construed with one of the prepositions (from), (to), and (than), or with the subordinating conjunction (than).- Pleasure is different from'''/'''than'''/'''to''' happiness.''
- ''It's different '''than''' ''(or '''''from what'' )'' I expected.