Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural a·nal·o·gies.
- a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
- similarity or comparability: I see no analogy between your problem and mine.
- Biology. an analogous relationship.
- Linguistics.
- the process by which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns in the language, as when shoon was re-formed as shoes, when -ize is added to nouns like winter to form verbs, or when a child says foots for feet.
- a form resulting from such a process.
- Logic. a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects.
noun plural -gies
- agreement or similarity, esp in a certain limited number of features or details
- a comparison made to show such a similarityto draw an analogy between an atom and the solar system
- biology the relationship between analogous organs or parts
- logic maths a form of reasoning in which a similarity between two or more things is inferred from a known similarity between them in other respects
- linguistics imitation of existing models or regular patterns in the formation of words, inflections, etca child may use “sheeps” as the plural of “sheep” by analogy with “dog”, “dogs”, “cat”, “cats”, etc
1540s (perhaps early 15c.), from Old French analogie or directly from Latin analogia, from Greek analogia “proportion,” from ana- “upon, according to” (see ana-) + logos “ratio,” also “word, speech, reckoning” (see logos). A mathematical term used in a wider sense by Plato.
A comparison of two different things that are alike in some way (see metaphor and simile). An analogy attributed to Samuel Johnson is: “Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.”