Word.ws English Dictionary

made a difference

made a difference is the simple past and past participle of make a difference.

Meaning of make a difference

Verb

make a difference (third-person singular simple present makes a difference, present participle making a difference, simple past and past participle made a difference)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To carry out an action, the result of which is a significant change, or an altered circumstance.
    • Near-synonym: move the needle
    Synonyms:
    move the needle
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be of importance; to matter.
    • I don't think it makes a difference whether you come tonight or not.

Questions about made a difference

What is made a difference the simple past and past participle of?
Made a difference is the simple past and past participle of make a difference.

Words near made a difference in the dictionary

  1. made a cat laugh
  2. made a clean breast
  3. made a dash for it
  4. made a decision
  5. made a dent
  6. made a difference
  7. made a dollar out of fifteen cents
  8. made a face
  9. made a fist of
  10. made a fool of
  11. made a fool out of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: made a difference (page history and authors); make 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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Cite this entry: “made a difference.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/made_a_difference. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.