different between comparison vs comparative

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French comparison, from Latin compar?ti?, from compar?tus, perfect passive participle of compar?.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?m?p???s?n/, /k?m?pæ??s?n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?m?pæ??s?n/

Noun

comparison (countable and uncountable, plural comparisons)

1. The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared.
2. An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each other.
   • 1841, Thomas Macaulay, Warren Hastings

     As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear a comparison with them.

   • 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord

     The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison.

   • "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]"

3. With a negation, the state of being similar or alike.

4. (grammar) A feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected to indicate the relative degree of the property they define exhibited by the word or phrase they modify or describe.

5. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.
6. (rhetoric) A simile.
7. (phrenology) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• panic rooms

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin compar?ti?.

Noun

comparison f (oblique plural comparisons, nominative singular comparison, nominative plural comparisons)

1. comparison (instance of comparing two or more things)

Descendants

• ? English: comparison
• French: comparaison
• Norman: compathaison

References

English

Etymology

From Middle French comparatif, from Latin comparativus, equivalent to comparatus, from comparare (“to compare”) + -ive, from Latin -ivus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?m?pæ?.?.t?v/
• (General American) enPR: k?m?p?r-?-t?v
  • (Mary–marry–merry distinction) IPA^(key): /k?m?pæ?.?.t?v/
  • (Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /k?m?p??.?.t?v/
• (Mary–marry–merry distinction)
• (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Hyphenation: com?par?a?tive

Adjective

comparative (comparative more comparative, superlative most comparative)

1. Of or relating to comparison.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   • 1773, James Burnett, Of the Origin and Progress of Language

     that kind of animals that have the comparative faculty, by which they compare things together, deliberate and resolve

2. Using comparison as a method of study, or founded on something using it.

3. Approximated by comparison; relative.
   • 1837, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences

     The recurrence of comparative warmth and cold.

   • 1692, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism

     This bubble, […] by reason of its comparative levity to the fluid that encloses it, would necessarily ascend to the top.

4. (obsolete) Comparable; bearing comparison.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.137:

     And need he had of slumber yet, for none / Had suffered more—his hardships were comparative / To those related in my grand-dad's Narrative.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

comparative (plural comparatives)

1. (grammar) A construction showing a relative quality, in English usually formed by adding more or appending -er. For example, the comparative of green is greener; of evil, more evil.
2. (grammar) A word in the comparative form.
3. (chiefly in the plural) Data used to make a comparison.
4. (obsolete) An equal; a rival; a compeer.

   • Gerrard ever was / His full comparative.

5. (obsolete) One who makes comparisons; one who affects wit.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt. 1, III.ii.67:

     Every beardless vain comparative.

Synonyms

• (grammar: degree): comparative degree

Translations

Related terms

• absolute, absolute superlative, relative superlative, comparative superlative
• degrees of comparison
• superlative

See also

• contrastive

References

• “comparative”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ?ISBN
• “comparative” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "comparative" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• vampire taco

French

Adjective

comparative

1. feminine singular of comparatif

Italian

Adjective

comparative

1. feminine plural of comparativo

Anagrams

• comparivate
• crepitavamo

Latin

Adjective

compar?t?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of compar?t?vus

References

• comparative in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press