Analogy
Pronunciation
Origin
From Latin analogia, from Ancient Greek ἀναλογία, from ἀνά + λόγος (logos, "speech, reckoning")
Full definition of analogy
Noun
analogy
(plural analogies)- 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, Essays: First Series, ch. 6:Yet the systole and diastole of the heart are not without their analogy in the ebb and flow of love.
- 1869, Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller, ch. 18:Is there any analogy, in certain constitutions, between keeping an umbrella up, and keeping the spirits up?
- 1901, Edith Wharton, The Valley of Decision, ch. 12:The old analogy likening the human mind to an imperfect mirror, which modifies the images it reflects, occurred more than once to Odo.
- 1983, "How to Write Programs," Time, 3 Jan.: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 9780440236733, p. 75:A kid living on the street is a bit like — and please pardon the analogy here — a weed.