Analog

How to spell analog

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce analog

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does analog mean?

1. adjectiveRepresenting or storing information by a continuously variable physical quantity rather than in discrete digital form.
2. nounA person or thing seen as comparable to or corresponding with another.

Analog in a sentence

• adjective

  The old studio still records onto analog tape rather than a hard drive.

• noun

  The new drug is a close analog of a compound found in tree bark.

• adjective

  He prefers an analog watch with sweeping hands to a smartphone clock.

• noun

  Researchers studied a desert lake as an analog for conditions on Mars.

Where does analog come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word travels back to the Greek analogos, which meant 'proportionate' or 'according to a ratio'. It was assembled from ana, meaning 'according to' or 'up to', and logos, a richly layered word meaning 'ratio', 'proportion', 'reckoning', and also 'word' or 'reason'. The mathematical idea of one quantity corresponding to another in fixed proportion gave English 'analogy' through Latin and French in the 1500s. The shorter form 'analog' emerged much later, in the twentieth century, especially in engineering, to describe signals or devices that represent information by a continuous physical quantity that is proportional to the thing measured, as opposed to discrete digital steps. The American and technical spelling drops the older French-influenced '-ue' ending seen in 'analogue', which is the same trap that affects 'catalog' and 'dialog'.

How the word is built

• ana- (according to, in proportion)
• log (from Greek logos: ratio, proportion, word)

British and American spelling

Analog is the American spelling. British English spells it analogue.