différance
différance noun: the endless deferral of any ultimate meaning in a word or sentence, owing to the necessity of recourse to a potentially infinite series of other, equally uncertain words or signs.
Noun
différance (uncountable)
- The endless deferral of any ultimate meaning in a word or sentence, owing to the necessity of recourse to a potentially infinite series of other, equally uncertain words or signs.
- This is the final Derridan manoeuvre, the showing up of ‘blind spots’ in a text, or the ‘blindness’ of an author to certain textual ‘différances’ or ‘suppléments’ in his own text, operative though not observed.1980 June 5, Roger Poole, “Roger Poole on the seductions and dangers of structuralism”, in London Review of Books, volume 02, number 11, →ISSN
Origin of différance
From French différance (“deferral”) (coined in this sense by Derrida), from différer (“to defer”); but punning on différence (“difference”).
Questions about différance
- What does différance mean?
- Différance means the endless deferral of any ultimate meaning in a word or sentence, owing to the necessity of recourse to a potentially infinite series of other, equally uncertain words or signs.
- What part of speech is différance?
- Différance is a noun.
Words near différance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: différance (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.
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Cite this entry: “différance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/diff%C3%A9rance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.