Word.ws English Dictionary

distinction without a difference

distinction without a difference noun: a linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference.

Noun

distinction without a difference (plural distinctions without a difference or distinctions without differences)

  1. (set phrase) A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference.
    • "'The Active Inquirer' is the present name, though when we supported Mr. Adams it was called 'The Active Enquirer,' with an E."
      "A distinction without a difference; I like that," interrupted Captain Truck.1831, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in Homeward Bound
    • I said . . . I did not speak English at all—I only spoke American. He laughed, and said it was a distinction without a difference. I said no, the difference was not prodigious, but still it was considerable.1880, Mark Twain, Concerning the American Language, being part of a chapter which was crowded out of A Tramp Abroad

Examples of distinction without a difference in a sentence

  • The fact that the sit-in convictions were under state rather than federal law, ruled last week's majority, is "a distinction without a difference."1964 December 25, “Obliterating the Effect”, in Time:
  • "Obscene" is a higher standard than "indecent," although it seems like a distinction without a difference.1996 June 13, “Editorial: A setback for attempts to censor the Internet”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
  • Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court of appeals, responded that this was a distinction without a difference.2007 June 29, Cass R. Sunstein, “The Supreme Court's conservative divide”, in The New Republic Online:
  • For the terrorists, it is a distinction without a difference.2018, The Jews: A History, John M Efron, Steven Weitzman, and Matthias B Lehmann:

Forms of distinction without a difference

pluraldistinctions without a difference
pluraldistinctions without differences

Questions about distinction without a difference

What does distinction without a difference mean?
Distinction without a difference means a linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference.
How do you use distinction without a difference in a sentence?
The fact that the sit-in convictions were under state rather than federal law, ruled last week's majority, is "a distinction without a difference."
What part of speech is distinction without a difference?
Distinction without a difference is a noun.
What is the plural of distinction without a difference?
The plural of distinction without a difference is distinctions without a difference.

Words near distinction without a difference in the dictionary

  1. distinctifies
  2. distinctify
  3. distinctifying
  4. distincting
  5. distinction
  6. distinction without a difference
  7. distinctional
  8. distinctioning
  9. distinctionless
  10. distinctions
  11. distinctions without a difference

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: distinction without a difference (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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