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Difference vs Distance - What's the difference?

difference | distance |

In countable terms the difference between difference and distance

is that difference is the result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result while distance is the amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

In transitive terms the difference between difference and distance

is that difference is to distinguish or differentiate while distance is to leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.

difference

English

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

    • Synonyms

    * (characteristic of something that makes it different from something else) departure, deviation, divergence * (disagreement or argument about something important) conflict, difference of opinion, dispute, dissension * (result of a subtraction) remainder * (significant change in state) nevermind

    Antonyms

    * (quality of being different) identity, sameness

    Derived terms

    * distinction without a difference * creative differences * difference engine * difference equation * difference gate * difference of two squares * goal difference * same difference * split the difference * spot the difference * tell the difference

    See also

    * addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total) * subtraction: (minuend) ? (subtrahend) = (difference) * multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product) * division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

    Verb

    (differenc)
  • To distinguish or differentiate.
    • (en)

    Synonyms

    * (to distinguish or differentiate) differentiate, distinguish

    Related terms

    * differ * different * differentiate * differentiation * differential

    External links

    * * ----

    distance

    English

    (wikipedia distance)

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (archaic)

    Noun

  • (lb) The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
  • :
  • *, chapter=5
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly,
  • Length or interval of time.
  • *(Matthew Prior) (1664-1721)
  • *:ten years' distance between one and the other
  • *(John Playfair) (1748-1819)
  • *:the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years
  • The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.
  • :
  • Remoteness of place; a remote place.
  • *(Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
  • *:easily managed from a distance
  • * (1777-1844)
  • *:'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
  • *:[He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato.
  • Remoteness in succession or relation.
  • :
  • A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
  • *(w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
  • *:the horse that ran the whole field out of distance
  • The entire amount of progress to an objective.
  • :
  • A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.
  • :
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:Setting them [factions] at distance , or at least distrust amongst themselves.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.
  • *
  • *:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
  • The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:I hope your modesty / Will know what distance to the crown is due.
  • *(Francis Atterbury) (1663-1732)
  • *:'Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld.

    • Synonyms

    *

    Derived terms

    * aesthetic distance * angular distance * automatic distance control * braking distance * Cartesian distance * critical distance * distance formula * distance learning * distance vision * distancer * edit distance * effort distance * Euclidean distance * focal distance * go the distance * Hamming distance * horizon distance * interarch distance * interplant distance * keep at a distance * keep one's distance * Levenshtein distance * long-distance * luminosity distance * mean distance between failure * middle-distance * polar distance * resistance distance * self-distance * short-distance * skip distance * social distance * spitting distance * striking distance * string distance * taxicab distance * walking distance * zenith distance

    Related terms

    * distant

    Verb

  • To move away (from) someone or something.
    • He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.
  • To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 71:
    • Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * * * ----