discrepancy

noun

dis·​crep·​an·​cy di-ˈskre-pən-sē 

plural discrepancies

1

: the quality or state of disagreeing or being at variance

2

: an instance of disagreeing or being at variance

Synonyms

• difference
• distinctness
• distinctiveness
• diversity

Examples of discrepancy in a Sentence

Dr. Derman, who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs and became managing director, was a forerunner of the many physicists and other scientists who have flooded Wall Street in recent years, moving from a world in which a discrepancy of a few percentage points in a measurement can mean a Nobel Prize or unending mockery to a world in which a few percent one way can land you in jail and a few percent the other way can win you your own private Caribbean island. —Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2009

Why the difference? Why are some individuals so outwardly altered by time and others not? Or, in other words, why is there often a discrepancy between chronological age and biological age? —Time, 17 Oct. 2005

If an article is on one machine but not the other, a copy is made to eliminate the discrepancy. —Simson Garfinkel, Technology Review, November 2001

The discrepancy can't be written off simply as lack of data, because it shows up in one of the best-studied periods in Earth's history … —Tim Appenzeller, Science, 12 Feb. 1993

Discrepancies in the firm's financial statements led to an investigation.

There were discrepancies between their accounts of the accident.

Recent Examples on the Web

One major discrepancy came from how long children were awake without parents realizing it. —Daniella Gray, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Oct. 2025

Some observational reports suggest that birds sing as if dawn has returned when the sunlight comes back, while others show an increase in bird sounds during the darkness—a discrepancy that could come down to some birds being more active at night and others being more active during the day. —Humberto Basilio, Scientific American, 8 Oct. 2025

This year’s version was probably the hardest so far because of a continually shrinking talent discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots on the back end. —Harman Dayal, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025

Bottles of Lipton Green Tea Citrus were mistakenly labeled as Diet Green Tea Mixed Berry, resulting in a discrepancy in sugar content. —Jenna Anderson, Health, 7 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

earlier discrepance in same sense (borrowed from Latin discrepantia, derivative of discrepant-, discrepans, present participle of discrepāre "to differ in sound, be out of tune, be inconsistent") + -ancy — more at discrepant

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

discrepancy

noun

dis·​crep·​an·​cy dis-ˈkrep-ən-sē 

plural discrepancies

1

: the quality or state of being different : disagreement

a great discrepancy between the two reports

2

: something that is different or that disagrees

discrepancies in the firm's financial statements