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COMPARISON
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of examining resemblances
Example:
the fractions selected for comparison must require pupils to consider both numerator and denominator
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("comparison" is a kind of...):
examination; scrutiny (the act of examining something closely (as for mistakes))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "comparison"):
likening (the act of comparing similarities)
analogy (drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect)
collation (careful examination and comparison to note points of disagreement)
confrontation (a focussed comparison; bringing together for a careful comparison)
contrast (the act of distinguishing by comparing differences)
Derivation:
compare (examine and note the similarities or differences of)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Qualities that are comparable
Example:
beyond compare
Synonyms:
comparability; compare; comparison; equivalence
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("comparison" is a kind of...):
alikeness; likeness; similitude (similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things)
Derivation:
compare (consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Relation based on similarities and differences
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("comparison" is a kind of...):
relation (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "comparison"):
imaginative comparison (the kind of mental comparison that is expressed in similes or metaphors or allegories)
Derivation:
compare (examine and note the similarities or differences of)
Context examples:
At Oxford I have been a good deal used to have a man lean on me for the length of a street, and you are only a fly in the comparison.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Some of the patterns of gene sharing we see between the butterflies have also been documented in comparisons of the human and Neanderthal genomes, so there is another link to our own evolution.
(Butterflies are genetically wired to choose a mate that looks just like them, University of Cambridge)
A unit of antibody concentration measured by comparison against a known concentration of antibodies in a standard reference specimen.
(Antibody Unit, NCI Thesaurus)
That, I suppose, was the difference of duties which struck you, as rendering the conditions incapable of comparison.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Almost 100 age-matched controls were also studied for comparison.
(Physical Activity Brings Lasting Bone Benefits, NIH, US)
For comparison, the United States consume a very high 260 grams of meat per person per day.
(Eat less meat to cut drug resistance, SciDev.Net)
By comparison, it took Earth as a whole 137 years to warm by nearly the same amount, 0.8 degrees Celsius.
(Warming at the poles will have global consequences, National Science Foundation)
By comparison, our sun is about 5 billion years old and thought to be about halfway through its lifetime.
(NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Finds Planet That Makes Star Act Deceptively Old, NASA)
CT scans of the fossils, combined with detailed comparisons with other sauropods, revealed unique features that suggested an animal that was different from previous finds—including those from elsewhere in Africa.
(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)
