distinction without a difference
English
[edit]
Noun
[edit]distinction without a difference (plural distinctions without a difference or distinctions without differences)
- (set phrase) 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.
- 1831, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in Homeward Bound:
- "'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.
- 1880, Mark Twain, Concerning the American Language, being part of a chapter which was crowded out of A Tramp Abroad:
- 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.
- 1964 December 25, “Obliterating the Effect”, in Time:
- 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."
- 1996 June 13, “Editorial: A setback for attempts to censor the Internet”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
- "Obscene" is a higher standard than "indecent," although it seems like a distinction without a difference.
- 2007 June 29, Cass R. Sunstein, “The Supreme Court's conservative divide”, in The New Republic Online:
- 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.
- 2018, The Jews: A History, John M Efron, Steven Weitzman, and Matthias B Lehmann:
- [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.
Translations
[edit]perceived, but not actual difference
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