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more about analogy
analogy |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Analogy \A*nal"o*gy\, n.; pl {Analogies}. [L. analogia Gr ?, fr ?: cf F. analogie. See {Analogous}.] 1. A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus learning enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind what light is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden. Note: Followed by between, to or with as there is an analogy between these objects, or one thing has an analogy to or with another. Note: Analogy is very commonly used to denote similarity or essential resemblance; but its specific meaning is a similarity of relations, and in this consists the difference between the argument from example and that from analogy. In the former, we argue from the mere similarity of two things in the latter, from the similarity of their relations. --Karslake. 2. (Biol.) A relation or correspondence in function, between organs or parts which are decidedly different. 3. (Geom.) Proportion; equality of ratios. 4. (Gram.) Conformity of words to the genius, structure, or general rules of a language; similarity of origin, inflection, or principle of pronunciation, and the like as opposed to {anomaly}. --Johnson. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: analogy n 1: similarity in some respect between things that are otherwise dissimilar: "the operation of a computer presents an interesting analogy to the working of the brain" 2: (logic) inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others 3: drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect; "the models show by analogy how matter is built up" 4: a theoretical account based on a similarity between the model and the phenomena that are to be explained; "it was a computer simulation of problem solving" [syn: {simulation}]
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