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This list contains Germanic elements of the English language which have a close corresponding Latinate form. The correspondence is semantic—in most cases these words are not cognates, but in some cases they are doublets, i.e., ultimately derived from the same root, generally Proto-Indo-European, as in cow and beef, both ultimately from PIE *gʷōus.
Words taken directly from Latin and Ancient Greek are generally perceived as colder, more technical, and more medical or scientific – compare life (Old English) with biology (classical compound – a modern coinage from Greek roots).
In any quantitative science, the terms relative change and relative difference are used to compare two quantities while taking into account the "sizes" of the things being compared, i.e. dividing by a standard or reference or starting value. [1] The comparison is expressed as a ratio and is a unitless number.
The relations expressed may be spatial (denoting location or direction), temporal (denoting position in time), or relations expressing comparison, content, agent, instrument, means, manner, cause, purpose, reference, etc. Most common adpositions are highly polysemous (they have various different meanings).
Comparison (mathematics), a notation for comparing variable values; Comparison of topologies, an order relation on the set of all topologies on one and the same set; Multiple comparisons, a procedure of statistics; a synonym for co-transitivity, in constructive mathematics
The "false equivalence" is the comparison between things differing by many orders of magnitude: [3] Deepwater Horizon spilled 210 million US gal (790 million L) of oil; [4] one's neighbor might spill perhaps 1 US pt (0.47 L).
To compare things, they must have characteristics that are similar enough in relevant ways to merit comparison. If two things are too different to compare in a useful way, an attempt to compare them is colloquially referred to in English as "comparing apples and oranges." Comparison is widely used in society, in science and the arts.
A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as like or as. For this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. [15] [16] The metaphor category contains these specialized types: