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Interchangeable vs Comparable - What's the difference?

interchangeable | comparable |

As adjectives the difference between interchangeable and comparable

is that interchangeable is freely substitutable may be swapped at will while comparable is able to be compared (to).

As a noun comparable is

something suitable for comparison.

interchangeable

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Freely substitutable. May be swapped at will.
    • Eli Whitney's development of interchangeable parts was a breakthrough for modern manufacturing. Prior to that each part had to be made custom.
  • * 2014 , Ian Jack, " Is this the end of Britishness", The Guardian , 16 September 2014:
    • The English, until relatively recently, seem to have imagined “English” and “British” to be interchangeable , as if Britain was just a bigger England.

    Derived terms

    * interchangeably

    comparable

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Able to be compared (to).
  • Similar (to); like.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Philip J. Bushnell
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance , passage=Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.}}
  • (mathematics) Constituting a pair in a particular partial order.
  • (grammar) Said of an adjective that has a comparative and superlative form.

    • Related terms

    * incomparable * comparability * comparableness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something suitable for comparison.
  • * {{quote-news, 2009, January 2, Fred A. Bernstein, Catskill Home Prices: How Low Will They Go?, New York Times citation
    • , passage=And the appraiser said he couldn't come up with comparables , because there hadn't been any sales nearby in several months. }} ----