Analogous means alike enough for a comparison to hold. Analogous to the earlier case, broadly analogous, an analogous situation.
It always takes to and claims a likeness in relation rather than in appearance. In biology it is precise and opposed to homologous, since an analogous structure does the same job without shared ancestry, as a bird's wing and an insect's do.
1adjectiveanalogousAlike enough for a comparison to hold.
“The heart is analogous to a pump, pushing blood around the body.”
analogous is a quality.
Greek analogos means proportionate, from ana plus logos, ratio or reckoning.
Ancient Greek
ᾰ̓νᾰ́λογος
Latin
analogus
English, today
analogous
From Latin analogus, from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓νᾰ́λογος; Its English equivalent is analogue + ous. The application to similar features of organisms is nearly as old as the general sense. Recognizably modern uses of the second sense, distinguishing analogous from homologous, appear in the mid-19th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA