difference
Syllables: diffe·renceUK/ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns//ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns/
difference noun: the quality of being different.
Noun
difference (countable and uncountable, plural differences)
- The quality of being different.
- You need to learn to be more tolerant of difference.
- A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
- There are three differences between these two pictures.
- But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11
- Synonyms:
- departure, deviation, divergence, disparity
- A disagreement or argument.
- We have our little differences, but we are firm friends.
- What was the difference? It was a contention in public.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- Synonyms:
- conflict, difference of opinion, dispute, dissension
- Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
- It just won't make much difference to me.
- It just won't make much of a difference to anyone.
- Synonyms:
- nevermind
- The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
- The difference between 3 and 21 is 18.
- Synonyms:
- remainder
- Choice; preference.
- That now be chooseth with vile difference
To be a beast, and lack intelligence.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- That now be chooseth with vile difference
- An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
- The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
- A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB).
- The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B).
Verb
difference (third-person singular simple present differences, present participle differencing, simple past and past participle differenced)
- To distinguish or differentiate.
- This simple spectation of the lungs is differenced from that which concomitates a pleurisy.1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions
- […] and souls, like in the mass, but differenced in themselves, with special gifts, duties and joys […]1901 [1839], Philip James Bailey, Festus: A Poem, London: George Routledge & Sons, page 10
- Synonyms:
- differentiate, distinguish
- to modify a heraldic emblem so as to distinguish one branch of a house from another
difference meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
difference in Hindi
- quality of being different
- अंतर antar, भेद bhed, फ़र्क़ farq, प्रभेद prabhed, अवकल avkal
- characteristic of something that makes it different from something else
- विशेषता viśeṣtā, प्रभेद prabhed
- disagreement or argument about something important
- विभेद vibhed
- arithmetic: result of a subtraction
- भेद bhed, अवकल avkal
difference in Tamil
- quality of being different
- வித்தியாசம் vittiyācam, வேறுபாடு vēṟupāṭu
difference in Marathi
- quality of being different
- फरक pharak, वेगळेपण vegḷepaṇ
difference in Urdu
- quality of being different
- فَرْق farq, اَنْتَر antar
More languagesFewer languages
- difference in Bengali
- পার্থক্য parthokko, তফাত tophat
- difference in Telugu
- భేదము bhēdamu, తేడా tēḍā, విభేదము vibhēdamu
- difference in Malayalam
- വ്യത്യാസം vyatyāsaṁ, ഭിന്നത bhinnata
- difference in Kannada
- ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸ vyatyāsa
- difference in Punjabi
- فرق faraq, ਫਰਕ pharak, ਅੰਤਰ antar
- difference in Gujarati
- તફાવત taphāvat, ફરક pharak
- difference in Odia
- ପ୍ରଭେଦ prabheda
- difference in Sanskrit
- विशेष viśeṣa
- difference in Assamese
- প্ৰভেদ probhed, বিভেদ bibhed, ভিন bhin
- difference in Nepali
- फरक pharak, अन्तर antar, मतभेद matbhed, फरक छुट्याउनू pharak chuṭyāunū
- difference in Pashto
- پرخ parx, اختلاف extelãf, تفاوت tafāwót
- difference in Tagalog
- pagkakaiba, kaibhan
- difference in Arabic
- فَرْق farq, اِخْتِلَاف iḵtilāf, تَفَاوُت tafāwut, فُرُوق furūq
- difference in Malay
- beza
- difference in Indonesian
- perbedaan, perselisihan, selisih
- difference in Persian
- فرق گذاشتن farq gozâštan
- difference in Thai
- ความต่าง kwaam-dtàang, ความเห็นต่าง, ผลต่าง pǒn-dtàang
- difference in Vietnamese
- sự khác nhau, sự khác biệt, sự bất đồng, hiệu số
- difference in Myanmar
- ခြားနားချက် hkra:na:hkyak
Examples of difference in a sentence
- Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.1714, Thomas Ellwood, The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood: written by his own hand:
- As she did so Fanny put down her book , stood up and stretched her arms, and at once Jessamy noticed a difference.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 105:
- In the Calais Roll the arms of William de Warren […] are differenced by the addition of a canton said to be that of Fitzalan […]1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopædia of Armory, London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 344:
Synonyms of difference
- departure
- deviation
- divergence
- disparity
- conflict
- difference of opinion
- dispute
- dissension
- nevermind
- remainder
9 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of difference
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | differences |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | differences |
| present participle | differencing |
| past participle | differenced |
| past | differenced |
Origin of difference
From Middle English difference, from Old French difference, from Latin differentia (“difference”), from differēns (“different”), present participle of differre. Doublet of differentia. Morphologically differ + -ence.
Words formed from difference
- age difference
- antidifference
- as near as makes no difference
- common difference
- creative differences
- deflection difference
- diff
- difference engine
- difference equation
- difference gate
- difference-maker
- difference maker
- difference-making
- difference of opinion
- difference of two squares
- difference quotient
- difference set
- distinction without a difference
- electric potential difference
- equidifference
- finite difference
- goal difference
- know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
- know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow
- learning difference
- make a difference
- make all the difference
- make the difference
- mass difference
- nondifference
- photodifference
- point of difference
- potential difference
- same difference
- set difference
- set-theoretic difference
- size difference
- split the difference
- spot the difference
- symmetric difference
- tell the difference
- time difference
- undifferenced
- vive la difference
- what's the difference
- world of difference
Phrases with difference
- difference sets
- difference gates
- difference makers
- made a difference
- difference engines
- makes a difference
- made the difference
- making a difference
- difference equations
- difference quotients
- makes the difference
- worlds of difference
13 more phrasesFewer phrases
- making the difference
- splits the difference
- made all the difference
- makes all the difference
- splitting the difference
- irreconcilable difference
- making all the difference
- time difference of arrival
- distinctions without a difference
- knew the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
- known the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
- knows the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
- knowing the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
Questions about difference
- What does difference mean?
- Difference means the quality of being different.
- What is difference in Hindi?
- Difference in Hindi is अंतर (antar), भेद (bhed), फ़र्क़ (farq). See Difference meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use difference in a sentence?
- Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.
- What part of speech is difference?
- Difference can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce difference?
- Difference is pronounced /ˈdɪf.(ə.)ɹəns/ (UK).
- What is the plural of difference?
- The plural of difference is differences.
Words near difference in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: difference (page history and authors); فرق (Punjabi) (page history and authors); તફાવત (Gujarati) (page history and authors); প্ৰভেদ (Assamese) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-difference.ogg, En-au-difference.ogg.
Cite this entry: “difference.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/difference. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.