Word of the Day

: November 2, 2023

analogue

noun AN-uh-log

What It Means

Analogue refers to something that is similar to something else in design, origin, use, etc. In other words, an analogue is analogous to something else.

// There are many historical analogues to our current political situation that we can learn from in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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analogue in Context

“When the 32-year-old artist Gray Wielebinski was growing up in Dallas, he saw 10-gallon hats and boots as the marks of a fantastical machismo that belonged as much to him as to cisgender men. … In his work, the cowboy is a tragic figure professionally endangered by commercial ranching, making him an analogue to the queer establishments that have closed in recent years.” — Evan Moffitt, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2023

Did You Know?

Analogue is a handy word for something that is similar to something else in design, origin, use, etc., as in “tofu is a meat analogue.” Like its relations analogy and analogous, it traces back ultimately to the Greek word lógos, meaning “word,” “speech,” “relation,” “correspondence,” and “proportion.” Not to get too meta about analogue, but the nouns analogue and analog are themselves analogues (or, ahem, analogs) of one another: they differ only in spelling, though the analogue spelling is more common except in contexts related to chemistry. The pair also function as adjectives—as in “an analog watch” or “analog recording”—but in that case the shorter form is preferred except by those who use British English.