Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Comparison

Com·par′i·son, n. [F. comparaison, L. comparatio. See 1st Compare.] 1. The act of comparing; an examination of two or more objects with the view of discovering the resemblances or differences; relative estimate.

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

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

2. The state of being compared; a relative estimate; also, a state, quality, or relation, admitting of being compared; as, to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them.

3. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude.

Whereto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark iv. 30.

4. (Gram.) The modification, by inflection or otherwise, which the adjective and adverb undergo to denote degrees of quality or quantity; as, little, less, least, are examples of comparison.

5. (Rhet.) A figure by which one person or thing is compared to another, or the two are considered with regard to some property or quality, which is common to them both; e.g., the lake sparkled like a jewel.

6. (Phren.) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts.

Beyond comparison, so far superior as to have no likeness, or so as to make comparison needless. — In comparison of, In comparison with, as compared with; in proportion to. [Archaic] "So miserably unpeopled in comparison of what it once was." Addison. — Comparison of hands (Law), a mode of proving or disproving the genuineness of a signature or writing by comparing it with another proved or admitted to be genuine, in order to ascertain whether both were written by the same person. Bouvier. Burrill.

Com·par′i·son, v. t. To compare. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.