differ

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪfə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪfɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dif‧fer
• Rhymes: -ɪfə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English differren, from Old French differer, from Latin differō (“carry apart, put off, defer; differ”), from dis- (“apart”) + ferō (“carry, bear”). Compare Ancient Greek διαφέρω (diaphérō). Doublet of defer and dilate, see also infer, confer and collate, refer and relate, as well as prefer and prelate among others.

Verb

differ (third-person singular simple present differs, present participle differing, simple past and past participle differed)

1. (intransitive) Not to have the same traits or characteristics; to be unalike or distinct.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:differ

   These shoes only differ from those ones in having slightly longer laces.

   1. (intransitive) To be separated in quantity.

      The numbers 3 and 21 differ by 18.

   2. (intransitive, people, groups, etc.) To have diverging opinions, disagree.
      • May 11, 1827, George Canning, Changes in the Administration

        I differ from the honourable baronet on both these subjects

Antonyms

• (to be unalike): match

Derived terms

• agree to differ
• beg to differ
• your mileage may differ

Related terms

• difference
• different
• differential
• differentiate
• differentiation
• differently
• indifference
• indifferent
• indifferently

Translations

not to have the same characteristics

Arabic: اِخْتَلَفَ (iḵtalafa) Bulgarian: различа́вам се (bg) (različávam se) Catalan: diferir (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 不同 (zh) (bùtóng), 差別 / 差别 (zh) (chābié), 不一樣 / 不一样 (zh) (bù yīyàng) Czech: lišit se Danish: være forskellig(e) (da) Dutch: verschillen (nl), afwijken (nl) Esperanto: malsimili, diferenci Finnish: erota (fi) French: différer (fr) Galician: diferir (gl) German: sich unterscheiden (de), abweichen (de), differieren (de), verschieden sein, nicht übereinstimmen Greek: διαφέρω (el) (diaféro) Ancient: διαφέρω (diaphérō) Hungarian: különbözik (hu) Ido: diferar (io) Indonesian: beda (id), berbeda (id), berlainan (id) Italian: differire (it), essere differente, essere diverso Japanese: 異なる (ja) (ことなる, kotonaru), 違う (ja) (ちがう, chigau) Korean: 다르다 (ko) (dareuda) Latin: differō (la) Maori: horo Middle English: differren Polish: różnić się (pl) Portuguese: diferir (pt) Russian: отлича́ться (ru) impf (otličátʹsja), отличи́ться (ru) pf (otličítʹsja), различа́ться (ru) impf (različátʹsja), различи́ться (ru) pf (različítʹsja) Serbo-Croatian: razlikovati se (sh) Spanish: diferir (es) Swedish: vara olik(a) (sv), skilja sig åt, avvika (sv) Ukrainian: відрізня́тися (vidriznjátysja), різни́тися (riznýtysja) Vietnamese: khác (vi), không giống (vi) West Frisian: ferskille

to have diverging opinions, disagree

Arabic: اِخْتَلَفَ (iḵtalafa) Bulgarian: не съм съгласен (ne sǎm sǎglasen) Chinese: Mandarin: 异议 (zh) (yì yì) Danish: være uenig(e) Dutch: verschillen (nl) French: différer (fr) Galician: diverxer (gl) German: unterschiedlicher Meinung sein, sich uneinig sein, streiten (de), verschiedener Meinung sein, anderer Meinung sein, uneinig werden (de) Greek: διαφέρω (el) (diaféro) Ancient: διαφέρω (diaphérō) Ido: diferar (io) Ngazidja Comorian: ukhitalifiana Polish: nie zgadzać się, mieć inne zdanie Portuguese: divergir (pt) Russian: расходи́ться во мне́ниях (rasxodítʹsja vo mnénijax) Spanish: diferir (es) Swahili: kukhitalifiana Swedish: ha en avvikande uppfattning, tycka annorlunda, vara av en annan mening

Etymology 2

From diff +‎ -er.

Noun

differ (plural differs)

1. (computing) A program that diffs, a diff.

   Synonym: diff

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “differ”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “differ”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• riffed

Latin

Verb

differ

1. second-person singular present active imperative of differō