What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Difference vs Size - What's the difference?

difference | size |

As nouns the difference between difference and size

is that difference is difference while size is subject, topic.

difference

English

Noun

  • (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) 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.}}
  • (countable) A disagreement or argument.
  • We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.
  • * Shakespeare
  • What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.
  • * T. Ellwood
  • Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
  • (countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
  • * 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
  • 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.
  • (countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
  • (obsolete) Choice; preference.
  • * Spenser
  • That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
  • (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 (\scriptstyle A \overline B + \overline A B).
  • (relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another (\scriptstyle A \overline B).
  • 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) nevermind

    Antonyms

    * (quality of being different) identity, sameness

    Derived 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 difference

    See 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 dividend

    Verb

    (differenc)
  • To distinguish or differentiate.
  • (en)

    Synonyms

    * (to distinguish or differentiate) differentiate, distinguish

    size

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, outside, dialects) An assize.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 560:
  • I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size , that no one is above the law.
  • (obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc.
  • (obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to scant my sizes
  • The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • (obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance.
  • A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing.
  • (graph theory) A number of edges in a graph.
  • (figurative, dated) Degree of rank, ability, character, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
  • men of a less size and quality
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • the middling or lower size of people
  • An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for measuring the size of pearls.
  • (Knight)
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (siz)
  • To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • a statute to size weights, and measures
  • To classify or arrange by size.
  • # (military) To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks according to their stature.
  • # (mining) To sift (pieces of ore or metal) in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.
  • (colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.
  • To take a greater size; to increase in size.
  • * John Donne
  • Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size , grow.
  • (UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.
  • (obsolete) To swell; to increase the bulk of.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)

    Etymology 2

    Old Italian , a glue used by painters, shortened from (assisa), from (assiso), to make to sit, to seat, to place.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.
  • Wallpaper paste.
  • The thickened crust on coagulated blood.
  • Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.
  • Verb

    (siz)
  • To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.