Analogic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or based on analogy, involving comparison between things that share similar features or relationships
2. Pertaining to reasoning or principles that rely on the comparison of likenesses among diverse concepts or items
3. Characterized by a connection or reasoning through similarities, this term often involves comparisons that highlight shared attributes or relationships between different elements

Etymology: "Analogic" arrived in English from Middle French "analogique," which itself came from the Latin "analogicus." Both trace back to the Greek "analogikos," built from "analogia," meaning proportion or correspondence. That Greek noun is made of "ana," meaning "according to" or "up to," and "logos," meaning ratio, reckoning or word, so the underlying idea is a matching of ratios: one relationship mirrors another. The Greek root carried that mathematical sense for much of its life. Ancient writers used "analogia" for proportion in geometry and arithmetic, where two pairs of quantities share the same ratio. The move from numbers to reasoning came naturally, since an argument that reasons by comparison is essentially asking whether one situation holds the same proportion to another as a known case does. The adjective keeps that original sense of reasoning by likeness, so "analogic" describes thinking that proceeds by comparing one thing with another rather than by strict deduction.

Synonyms: analogous, comparative, similar, corresponding, like

Antonyms: dissimilar, unlike