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
“We analogize our strategy to snacks versus meals,” Silver said in 2018.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2021
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
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
This is known as pumped storage, an infrastructure often analogized as a giant watery battery.
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2021
The Édouard Louis phenomenon in France has been analogized by some American reviewers to that of J.D.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2020
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 James H. Blount
But to the extent that analogizing from the past is useful, we might be able to see something about AI by looking at it through a different lens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were analogizing and gazillion.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2022
But did analogizing my body to a car make sense?
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2019
In his comments to David Gregory, Wolfowitz called for an open-ended commitment to the country, analogizing his preferred approach to the long-term U.S. presence in South Korea.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2014
It was born, I think, of my frenzy for analogizing.
From An Ocean Tramp by William McFee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
