analogy

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analogy

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From Latin analogia, from Ancient Greek ἀναλογίᾱ (analogíā), from ἀνα- (ana-) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, reckoning”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ælədʒi

analogy (countable and uncountable, plural analogies)

1. A relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.
   • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter 6, in Essays: First Series:

     Yet the systole and diastole of the heart are not without their analogy in the ebb and flow of love.

   • 1869, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in The Uncommercial Traveller:

     Is there any analogy, in certain constitutions, between keeping an umbrella up, and keeping the spirits up?

   • 1901, Edith Wharton, chapter 12, in The Valley of Decision:

     The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo.

   • 1983 January 3, “How to Write Programs”, in Time:

     Perhaps the easiest way to think of it is in terms of a simple analogy: hardware is to software as a television set is to the shows that appear on it.

   • 2002, Harlan Coben, Gone for Good‎, →ISBN, page 75:

     A kid living on the street is a bit like — and please pardon the analogy here — a weed.

2. (geometry) The proportion or the equality of ratios.
3. (grammar) The correspondence of a word or phrase with the genius of a language, as learned from the manner in which its words and phrases are ordinarily formed; similarity of derivative or inflectional processes.

• analogue