Pronunciations (5)
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/ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
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/ˈdəf.(ə.)ɹəns/
Pronunciation notes
- New-Zealand
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ˈdɪfɹən(t)s
Noun
The quality of being different.
Usage- Uncountable
- Examples
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You need to learn to be more tolerant of difference.
A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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There are three differences between these two pictures.
More examples (1)
But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
A disagreement or argument.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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We have our little differences, but we are firm friends.
What was the difference? It was a contention in public.
More examples (1)
Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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It just won't make much difference to me.
It just won't make much of a difference to anyone.
More examples (2)
The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.
As she did so Fanny put down her book , stood up and stretched her arms, and at once Jessamy noticed a difference. It was the same Fanny but not the Fanny who climbed trees and tore her frock playing in the garden. It was as though a young lady film had settled over her, neatening her unruly hair, which was tied back with a large black bow, and primly composing her small mouth.
The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
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The difference between 3 and 21 is 18.
Choice; preference.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- Examples
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That now be chooseth with vile difference To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB).
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B).
Usage- Countable
- relational
- Uncountable
Verb
To distinguish or differentiate.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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This simple spectation of the lungs is differenced from that which concomitates a pleurisy.
[…] and souls, like in the mass, but differenced in themselves, with special gifts, duties and joys […]
More examples (1)
In the Calais Roll the arms of William de Warren […] are differenced by the addition of a canton said to be that of Fitzalan […]
to modify a heraldic emblem so as to distinguish one branch of a house from another
Noun
the quality of being unlike or dissimilar
- Antonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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there are many differences between jazz and rock
a variation that deviates from the standard or norm
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the deviation from the mean
a disagreement or argument about something important
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he had a dispute with his wife
there were irreconcilable differences
More examples (1)
the familiar conflict between Republicans and Democrats
a significant change
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the difference in her is amazing
his support made a real difference
the number that remains after subtraction; the number that when added to the subtrahend gives the minuend
- Synonyms
- Broader terms