comparison

/kəmˈpɛɹ.ɪ.sən/UK/kəmˈpæɹ.ɪ.sən/

comparison noun: the act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.

Photo by Henry Fraczek on Unsplash

Noun

comparison (countable and uncountable, plural comparisons)

The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.
- to bring a thing into comparison with another
- there is no comparison between them
Synonyms:

parallel
An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each other.
- He made a careful comparison of the available products before buying anything.
- As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear a comparison with them.1841, Thomas Macaulay, Warren Hastings
With a negation, the state of being similar or alike.
- There really is no comparison between the performance of today's computers and those of a decade ago.
A feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe.
- In English, adjectives and adverbs have three forms when making a comparison: the plain form "hot", the comparative form "hotter", and the superlative form "hottest".
That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
- Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 4:30
(rhetoric) A simile.
The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.

comparison meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

comparison in Hindi

act of comparing or the state of being compared: तुलना tulnā

comparison in Tamil

act of comparing or the state of being compared: ஒப்பீடு oppīṭu
evaluation of the similarities and differences of two (or more) things: ஒப்பீடு oppīṭu
state of being similar or alike: ஒப்பு oppu

comparison in Marathi

तुलना

comparison in Urdu

act of comparing or the state of being compared: مُوَازَنَہ mūāzana, اَنْدَازَہ andāza
evaluation of the similarities and differences of two (or more) things: مُوَازَنَہ mūāzana, اَنْدَازَہ andāza

More languagesFewer languages

comparison in Bengali: তুলনা tulna
comparison in Telugu: ఉపమానము upamānamu
comparison in Malayalam: താരതമ്യം tāratamyaṁ
comparison in Kannada: ಹೋಲಿಕೆ, ಗಡೆ
comparison in Punjabi: ਤੁਲਨਾ
comparison in Odia: ଅପେକ୍ଷା apekṣā
comparison in Nepali: तुलना
comparison in Pashto: پرتله partala
comparison in Arabic: مُقَارَنَة muqārana, مُقَابَلَة muqābala, تَشْبِيه tašbīh, مُقَايَسَة muqāyasa
comparison in Malay: perbandingan
comparison in Indonesian: komparasi, perbandingan
comparison in Persian: مقایسه moqâyese, تشبیه tašbih
comparison in Thai: การเปรียบเทียบ gaan-bprìiap-tîiap
comparison in Vietnamese: sự so sánh
comparison in Myanmar: အနှိုင်း a.hnuing:

Examples of comparison in a sentence

The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord:
"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie.1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […]...

All 40 example sentences with comparison

Synonyms of comparison

parallel

Forms of comparison

plural	comparisons

Plural of comparison: comparisons

Origin of comparison

From Middle English comparisoun, from Old French comparison, from Latin comparātiō, from comparātus, perfect passive participle of comparō.

Phrases with comparison

Questions about comparison

What does comparison mean?: Comparison means the act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.
What is comparison in Hindi?: Comparison in Hindi is तुलना (tulnā). See Comparison meaning in Hindi.
How do you use comparison in a sentence?: The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
What part of speech is comparison?: Comparison is a noun.
How do you pronounce comparison?: Comparison is pronounced /kəmˈpæɹ.ɪ.sən/ (UK).
What is the plural of comparison?: The plural of comparison is comparisons.

Words near comparison in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: comparison (page history and authors); comparison (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ఉపమానము (Telugu) (page history and authors); comparison (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); comparison (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଅପେକ୍ଷା (Odia) (page history and authors); comparison (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); پرتله (Pashto) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-comparison.ogg.

Cite this entry: “comparison.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/comparison. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.