# difference

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈdɪf(ə)ɹəns/ · frequency rank #1,048

## Definitions
1. The quality of being different.
2. A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
3. A disagreement or argument.
4. Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
5. The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
6. Choice; preference.
7. An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
8. The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
9. A Boolean operation which is true when the two input variables are different but is otherwise false; the XOR operation ( scriptstyle A◌̅B+◌̅AB).
10. The set of elements that are in one set but not another ( scriptstyle A◌̅B).

## Etymology
From Middle English difference, from Old French difference, from Latin differentia (“difference”), from differēns (“different”), present participle of differre. Doublet of differentia. Morphologically differ + -ence.

## Easily confused with
- **different** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/difference-vs-different)
- **differences** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/difference-vs-differences)
- **deference** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deference-vs-difference)

## Common misspellings (14)
`ddifference`, `dfiference`, `difefrence`, `diference`, `diffeernce`, `differance`, `differecne`, `differencce`, `differenec`, `differennce`, `differnece`, `differrence`, `diffreence`, `idfference`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/difference