Etymology

< < , present active participle of ; see differ.

Adjective

1. Not the same.

   Mona is different from Eloise.
2. Various, assorted, diverse.
   • 2006, Delbert S. Elliott et al., Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521863575, page 19:

     In any case, poor black respondents living in high-poverty neighborhoods are most likely to view their neighborhood as a single block or block group and to use this definition consistently when asked about different neighborhood characteristics and activities.

3. Distinct, separate; .

   Several different scientists all reached this conclusion at about the same time.

4. Unlike most others; unusual.

Usage notes

Depending on dialect, time period, and register, the adjective may be construed with one of the prepositions , , and , or with the subordinating conjunction .

Pleasure is different from/than/to happiness.

It's different than (or from what) I expected.

Of these, is more common in formal registers than in informal ones, and more common in the U.S. than elsewhere; is more common in the U.S. than elsewhere; and is more common in the U.K., in Australia, and in New Zealand than in the U.S. Style guides often advocate , by analogy with (rather than } or }).