• Any program which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
• The output of a diff program. A diff file.
• A difficult route.
• The quality of being different.
• A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.
• A disagreement or argument.
• Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.
• The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.
• Choice; preference.
• An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.
• The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.
• (logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation (\scriptstyle A \overline B + \overline A B).
• (relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another (\scriptstyle A \overline B).
• The differential gear in an automobile etc
• A qualitative or quantitative difference between similar or comparable things
• An infinitesimal change in a variable, or the result of differentiation
• One of two coils of conducting wire so related to one another or to a magnet or armature common to both, that one coil produces polar action contrary to that of the other.
• A form of conductor used for dividing and distributing the current to a series of electric lamps so as to maintain equal action in all.
verb
• To run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.
• To compare two files or other objects, manually or otherwise.
proper noun
• A program, historically part of the Unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
Note: This list has been curated by our developer and author and fine-tuned since 2016 with manual additions, exclusions and rankings. Thousands of user contributions from rappers, singers, songwriters and poets have also been used for accuracy.
