Noun

(uncountable) The quality of being different.

(countable) A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.

* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty

, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=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.}}

(countable) A disagreement or argument.

We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.

* Shakespeare

What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.

* T. Ellwood

Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.

(countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)

The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.

(countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.

(obsolete) Choice; preference.

* Spenser

That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.

(heraldry) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.

(logic) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.

(logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation ($\backslash scriptstyle\; A\; \backslash overline\; B\; +\; \backslash overline\; A\; B$).

(relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another ($\backslash scriptstyle\; A\; \backslash overline\; B$).

Noun

(en noun)

The act of converting something or someone.

His conversion to Islam

The conversion of the database from ASCII to Unicode

* Francis Bacon

Artificial conversion of water into ice.

(computing) A software product converted from one platform to another.

* 1988 , Crash (issue 59, December 1988)

Mike Follin also programmed the Spectrum version of The Sentinel'' (97%, Issue 40), and the excellent coin-op conversions ''Bubble Bobble'' (90%, Issue 45) and ''Bionic Commando (92%, Issue 53).

(chemistry) A chemical reaction wherein a substrate is transformed into a product.

(rugby) A free-kick, after scoring a try, worth two points.

(American football) An extra point scored by kicking a field goal after scoring a touchdown.

(marketing) An online advertising performance metric representing a visitor performing whatever the intended result of an ad is defined to be.

(legal) Under the common law, the tort of the taking of someone's personal property with intent to permanently deprive them of it, or damaging property to the extent that the owner is deprived of the utility of that property, thus making the tortfeasor liable for the entire value of the property.

the conversion of a horse

* Hudibras

Or bring my action of conversion / And trover for my goods.

(linguistics) The process whereby a new word is created without changing the form, often by allowing the word to function as a new part of speech.

(obsolete) The act of turning round; revolution; rotation.

(logic) The act of interchanging the terms of a proposition, as by putting the subject in the place of the predicate, or vice versa.

(math) A change or reduction of the form or value of a proposition.

the conversion''' of equations; the '''conversion of proportions