difference

1. 1

   The quality of being different.uncountable

   • You need to learn to be more tolerant of difference.
2. 2

   A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.countable

   • There are three differences between these two pictures.
3. 3

   A disagreement or argument.countable

   • We have our little differences, but we are firm friends.
4. 4

   Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.countableuncountable

   • It just won't make much difference to me.
   • It just won't make much of a difference to anyone.
5. 5

   The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.countable

   • The difference between 3 and 21 is 18.
6. 6

   Choice; preference.countableobsoleteuncountable

   • That now be chooseth with vile difference To be a beast, and lack intelligence.
7. 7

   An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.countableuncountable

8. 8

   The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.countableuncountable

9. 9

   A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB).countableuncountable

10. 10

    The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B).countablerelationaluncountable

syn. difference · differentiation · differentness · distinction · distinguishedness · nonidentity · unidenticality · diversity

ant. identity · identicality · identicalness · sameness

1. 1

   To distinguish or differentiate.obsoletetransitive

   • 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 […]
2. 2

   to modify a heraldic emblem so as to distinguish one branch of a house from another