distinction without a difference
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.04 in modern English
47
Scrabble Score
29
Letters
7
Syllables
14
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference.
Example Sentences
- ""'The Active Inquirer' is the present name, though when we supported Mr. Adams it was called 'The Active Enquirer,' with an E." "A distinction without a difference; I like that," interrupted Captain Truck."
- "I said . . . I did not speak English at all—I only spoke American. He laughed, and said it was a distinction without a difference. I said no, the difference was not prodigious, but still it was considerable."
- "The fact that the sit-in convictions were under state rather than federal law, ruled last week's majority, is "a distinction without a difference.""
- ""Obscene" is a higher standard than "indecent," although it seems like a distinction without a difference."
- "The Bush Administration attempted to distinguish the current case from Flast. . . . Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court of appeals, responded that this was a distinction without a difference. In the end, all money is appropriated by Congress."
- "[Attacking European Jews while claiming to avenge Palestinian deaths], of course, collapses the distinction between Israeli Jews and those from European countries, making a mockery of the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. For the terrorists, it is a distinction without a difference."