discrepancy

UK/dɪˈskɹɛpənsi/US/dɪˈskɹɛpənsi/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,758 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: discrepancies

A discrepancy is a difference between things that ought to match. A discrepancy in the accounts, explain the discrepancy, a small discrepancy.

It implies that one of the two must be wrong, which is why the word is a polite way of starting an awkward conversation. In accounting it is the standard term for figures that do not agree, and finding the cause is most of the work of an audit.

Definitions of discrepancy

1noundiscrepancyA difference between things that ought to match.B2+
“The accountant noticed a discrepancy between the receipts and the money in the bank.”

discrepancy is a difference.

Where it comes from

Latin discrepantia comes from discrepare, to sound differently — dis, apart, plus crepare, to rattle.

Latin
discrepantia
English, today
discrepancy

Borrowed from Latin discrepantia. Latin discrepantia, from discrepans, from discrepo, from crepo. by surface analysis, discrepant + -cy. See also discrepant.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

discrepancy in the wild

In mathematics, discrepancy theory describes the deviation of a situation from the state one would like it to be in.
Discrepancy theory
The experiment was the first to successfully detect and count solar neutrinos, and the discrepancy in results created the solar neutrino problem.
Homestake experiment
Self-discrepancy is the gap between two of these self-representations that leads to negative emotions.
Self-discrepancy theory
Such sequences are commonly studied in discrepancy theory.
Sign sequence
A binary system could explain the abundance discrepancy.
NGC 6153

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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