discrepancy

Language: en

🇺🇸 /dɪˈskrɛpənsiː/

📖 Definitions

  1. noun
    A lack of compatibility or similarity between two or more facts, figures, or statements; an inconsistency or disagreement between things that should be the same.; A difference or variation in amount, quantity, or degree between two things that are expected to correspond.; A contradiction or conflict between accounts, testimonies, or versions of events.; In statistics and mathematics, a measure of the deviation of a sequence or set from a uniform or expected distribution.

🔗 Details

Word forms

countable Plural: discrepancies

Collocations

discrepancy betweendiscrepancy inaccounting discrepancysignificant discrepancyminor discrepancyresolve a discrepancy

Derivatives

discrepantdiscrepantly

Synonyms

inconsistencydisparitydivergencemismatchvariancedifference

Antonyms

agreementconsistencyconformity

Commonly confused

disparity
EN: 'Disparity' emphasizes inequality in status, amount, or quality; 'discrepancy' emphasizes an inconsistency between things that are expected to match or agree.
discretion
EN: 'Discretion' means careful judgment or the freedom to decide; 'discrepancy' means a lack of agreement between facts or figures.

Spelling tips

EN: Note the silent 'p' in the middle: 'discrepancy', not 'discrepency'. The ending is '-ancy', not '-ency'.

💬 Examples

  1. The auditor found a discrepancy between the company's reported earnings and its actual bank balance.

  2. There is a significant discrepancy between the estimated cost and the final bill.

  3. The detective noticed a discrepancy in the two witnesses' descriptions of the suspect.

  4. The discrepancy of the point set was calculated to evaluate its uniformity across the unit square.