Analogising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The activity of making connections by highlighting similarities among various subjects
2. The act of identifying similarities to establish a relationship between different concepts
3. The process of relating one idea to another by pointing out shared characteristics

Etymology: "Analogising" is the present participle and gerund of "analogise," the British spelling of "analogize." The verb comes from "analogy," which traces back through Latin "analogia" to Greek "analogia," meaning "proportion" or "correspondence." In Greek mathematics and rhetoric, an analogy was a relation between pairs of things, so that the relationship between the first two matched the relationship between the second two. The verb developed from that sense of matching proportions into the broader act of drawing comparisons. To analogise is to explain something unfamiliar by showing how it resembles something already understood, which is why the process is so central to teaching, argument and scientific reasoning.

Synonyms: comparing, likening, relating, drawing parallels, correlating