| / English Dictionary |
ANALOGY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect
Example:
the models show by analogy how matter is built up
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("analogy" is a kind of...):
comparing; comparison (the act of examining resemblances)
Derivation:
analogical (expressing, composed of, or based on an analogy)
analogise (make an analogy)
analogist (someone who looks for analogies or who reasons by analogy)
analogize (make an analogy)
analogous (similar or equivalent in some respects though otherwise dissimilar)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("analogy" is a kind of...):
illation; inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)
Derivation:
analogical (expressing, composed of, or based on an analogy)
analogise (make an analogy)
analogist (someone who looks for analogies or who reasons by analogy)
analogize (make an analogy)
analogous (similar or equivalent in some respects though otherwise dissimilar)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The religious belief that between creature and creator no similarity can be found so great but that the dissimilarity is always greater; any analogy between God and humans will always be inadequate
Synonyms:
analogy; doctrine of analogy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("analogy" is a kind of...):
faith; religion; religious belief (a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny)
Context examples:
The analogy went even farther.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I have indeed observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least analogy between the two sciences; unless those people suppose, that because the smallest circle has as many degrees as the largest, therefore the regulation and management of the world require no more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe; but I rather take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of human nature, inclining us to be most curious and conceited in matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least adapted by study or nature.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I believe in a true analogy between our bodily frames and our mental; and that as our bodies are the strongest, so are our feelings; capable of bearing most rough usage, and riding out the heaviest weather.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I could not see the analogy, but did not like to admit it; so I harked back to what he had denied:—"So you don't care about life and you don't want souls. Why not?"
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The sweet scenes of autumn were for a while put by, unless some tender sonnet, fraught with the apt analogy of the declining year, with declining happiness, and the images of youth and hope, and spring, all gone together, blessed her memory.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
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