Definition of ANALOGY

Choose the Right Synonym for analogy

likeness, similarity, resemblance, similitude, analogy mean agreement or correspondence in details. likeness implies a closer correspondence than similarity which often implies that things are merely somewhat alike. a remarkable likeness to his late father some similarity between the two cases resemblance implies similarity chiefly in appearance or external qualities. statements that bear little resemblance to the truth similitude applies chiefly to correspondence between abstractions. two schools of social thought showing points of similitude analogy implies likeness or parallelism in relations rather than in appearance or qualities. pointed out analogies to past wars

Digging Into the Most Common Meaning of Analogy

In its most common use, analogy has to do with comparison of things based on those things being alike in some way. For example, one can make or draw an analogy between the seasons of the year and the stages of life. People also reason by way of analogy, asserting, for example, that abandoning a project is like leaving a house partway built. Although an analogy can be summarized quickly, as in these examples, an analogy actually encompasses the comparison or inference itself, and is therefore different from figures of speech, like metaphors and similes, which are forms of expression.

Some tests ask you to identify analogies, finding the second of a pair that has the same relationship as a completed pair. Analogy tests often look like this:

ice : cold :: steel : ____

a. hard b. loud c. fresh d. small

Because the relationship between ice and cold is that coldness is a quality of ice, the word that goes with steel is hard, since hardness is a quality of steel.

The word analogy (which comes from analogous) traces back by way of Latin to a Greek word meaning "proportionate." That word has a root in the Greek word logos, meaning "reason."

Examples of analogy in a Sentence

He does, though, suffer from the occupational deformation of international relations specialists: an enthusiasm for ransacking the past in search of precedents, analogies, patterns, and cycles that might explain the present and forecast the future. — Tony Judt, New York Book Review, 10 Apr. 2003 People who do this call themselves "white-hat" hackers—good people who show other people their vulnerabilities. Take the following analogy: I've designed a great new lock pick, and I'm going to give this great new gadget away to show everyone that the typical door lock is ineffective against my new pick. — John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine, 4 Apr. 2000 It has often been said that movie stars are the royalty of America. (The better analogy, really, is that the royals are the movie stars of Britain.) — Neal Gabler, Life: The Movie, 1998 Parts of the far-infrared sky look like colonies of spiders gone mad. The fine structure seen there is called cirrus, by analogy with filamentary clouds on Earth. — Virginia Trimble et al., Sky & Telescope, January 1995

Recent Examples on the Web

The analogy here is to someone running a major nonprofit organization who might be in it more for themselves than for the cause — something that rings true with Dany. — Lucy Diavolo, Teen Vogue, "Anarchist Arya Stark: This Game of Thrones Meme Breaks Down Characters by Political Organizing Tactics," 21 May 2019 There’s immediately a problem with his Scandinavian analogy, since the countries of that region have been running away from Sanders-style economics and in recent years have become champions of corporate tax rate-cutting. — James Freeman, WSJ, "Bernie Sanders and Venezuela," 20 Mar. 2019 Goedert jokingly compared himself to LeBron James when asked for a basketball comparison, but his football analogies – Ertz and the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce — made more sense. — Jeff Mclane, Philly.com, "Eagles second-round draft pick Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz could be a mismatch nightmare," 28 Apr. 2018 The analogy with wholesale state kleptocracy was too sharp, and the film was banned for ever. — The Economist, "Milos Forman died on April 13th," 21 Apr. 2018 The analogy with entropy (a measure of disorder, that likewise can never decrease) was developed further by the late Israeli theorist Jacob Bekenstein. — Martin Rees, Newsweek, "A Brief History of My Friend Stephen Hawking, the Man Who Changed Our Times," 14 Mar. 2018 Celebrity hairstylist Harry Josh chalks up hair pain to a simple analogy. — Alexandra Macon, Vogue, "Why Exactly Does My Hair Hurt?," 7 Mar. 2019 Much of the 20th century has become a sort of Atlantis, and analogies between the old time and our own are tenuous. — Lance Morrow, WSJ, "America Is Torn Between Trump’s Fibs and Progressives’ Fantasies," 15 Feb. 2019 Take, for example, the analogy of lifting weights at the gym, an act that quite literally stresses your muscles. — Kate Branch, Vogue, "Now, Experts Say Stress Can Be Good for Your Health—Really," 18 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'analogy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.