Idiom
apples and oranges
Meaning
A comparison of items that, however categorically similar, is inapt; an incompatible analogy, or the items so compared; a disanalogy.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Comparing those two jobs is like comparing apples and oranges.”
“You cannot compare a professional athlete to a hobbyist, as they are apples and oranges.”
“To weigh the merits of classical poetry against modern software development is to compare apples and oranges, given their entirely disparate objectives.”
Examples
simple
“Comparing those two jobs is like comparing apples and oranges.”
contextual
“You cannot compare a professional athlete to a hobbyist, as they are apples and oranges.”
complex
“To weigh the merits of classical poetry against modern software development is to compare apples and oranges, given their entirely disparate objectives.”
Key words
Related idioms
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