analogize

American  

[uh-nal-uh-jahyz] / əˈnæl əˌdʒaɪz /

especially British, analogise

verb (used without object)

analogized, analogizing

1. to make use of analogy in reasoning, argument, etc.

2. to be analogous; show analogy.

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verb (used with object)

analogized, analogizing

1. to make analogous; show an analogy between.

   to analogize a dog to a cat.

analogize British  

/ əˈnæləˌdʒaɪz /

verb

1. (intr) to make use of analogy, as in argument; draw comparisons

2. (tr) to make analogous or reveal analogy in

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Other Word Forms

• unanalogized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of analogize

First recorded in 1645–55; analog(y) + -ize

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

analogize analogized analogizing

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

If you wish to analogize the Hot 100 to the federal government, you can think of radio as the judicial branch—slow-moving and defined by custom and format.

From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2017

Throughout the opinion, the court analogized Congress’ spending power to a “contract” between the federal government and the states.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

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

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

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 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

"All thinking is analogizing, and it is the use of life to learn metonymy."

From The Last Harvest by John Burroughs

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