Difference

How to spell difference

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce difference

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does difference mean?

1. nounThe way in which two or more things are unlike, or the amount by which they vary.

Difference in a sentence

• The difference between the two estimates was almost a thousand pounds.

• She could not tell the difference between the original and the copy.

Where does difference come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb differre, meaning literally 'to carry apart' or 'to set apart', formed from dis- 'apart' and ferre 'to carry or bear'. From that verb came the Latin noun differentia, describing the quality that sets one thing apart from another. English took the word in during the 1300s through Old French difference, keeping the abstract sense of a distinction or a state of being unlike. The same ferre root that means 'to carry' lives on in a crowd of English relatives such as 'transfer', 'refer', and 'infer', so the central idea is always something being borne in a particular direction. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: the second syllable is a faint schwa, which is why writers sometimes drop the 'e' and leave the troublesome '-ence' ending uncertain.

How the word is built

• dif- (apart, variant of dis-)
• fer (carry, bear)
• -ence (noun suffix)