Differences refers to the quality of being different. It commonly describes a characteristic of something that makes it different from something else, a disagreement or argument, and significant change in or effect on a situation or state, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to the result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result, choice; preference, and an addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Differences as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include the quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia and to distinguish or differentiate, which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
