verb
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(intr) to make use of analogy, as in argument; draw comparisons
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(tr) to make analogous or reveal analogy in
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of analogize
Explanation
When you analogize, you explain one thing by comparing it to another. You make an analogy. If you say that DNA is like a twisted ladder, you analogize to make it easier for someone to imagine. The word analogize comes from the Greek analogizesthai which basically means "to sum up." When you analogize something, you sum it up by making a comparison. In literature, similes and metaphors are used to analogize. The poet Robert Burns analogizes when he writes, "My love is like a red, red rose." If a babysitter complains, "These kids are like a pack of wild dogs," he analogizes the kids and dogs. And he probably won’t be back.
Vocabulary lists containing analogize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I analogize it to local entities and services, even law enforcement, don’t check your tax returns.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
You analogize that to how, after Brown v.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2024
“They’d like to analogize this with the ho-hum updating of the flu vaccine each year — don’t think about it, just get it,” said William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
In this case, speakers analogize the “s” sound at the end of “gracias” and apply it to the English form.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2023
The American political scientist Langdon Winner suggests that we identify and not just analogize legislation with technology.
From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2022
They interestingly analogized marriage to slavery because, at the time, there was a legal category called “domestic relations.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
In conversation, he analogized that effort with his decision in the 1990s to write music directly on gay themes.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
The explanation Belflower proposes for Abigail’s mad dancing in the forest is ideally analogized in the final scene.
From Washington Post ● May 20, 2022
For all the comparisons to Lorde, Eilish, and her High School Musical forebears, the artist to whom Rodrigo is most often analogized is the mighty Taylor.
From Slate ● Jan. 22, 2021
Governor Taft simply analogized his situation to that of a governor of a State or Territory at home.
From The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by Blount, James H.
Schaffner explained by analogizing pockets of air on a plane to slices of bread.
From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2022
Historical analogizing about such matters is inherently difficult.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 16, 2021
In 2014, a district court held that Baidu’s search engine results were in fact protected by the First Amendment, citing Volokh’s reasoning and analogizing the search engine to a newspaper.
From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2017
Kardaras’ op-ed goes on to warn that exposure to screens can cause "addiction," and he quotes researchers analogizing screentime to heroin and cocaine.
From The Verge ● Aug. 30, 2016
It was born, I think, of my frenzy for analogizing.
From An Ocean Tramp by McFee, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
