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
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently analogized the lack of economic data during the government shutdown to driving in a fog.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
The images, published at the height of the space race, were constructed as alien, analogized to galactic exploration and coded as masculine.
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2022
Chung analogized octopus evolution to shark evolution, noting that sharks evolved differently based on the ocean depths at which they preferred to swim.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2021
This is known as pumped storage, an infrastructure often analogized as a giant watery battery.
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 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.
People have been analogizing A.I. advances to splitting the atom for years.
From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2023
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
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.
