A way of picturing it: two things set side by side so a fair comparison can be made. Whether they turn out equal is a second question — first they must be alike enough to line up at all.
From the word’s history
From Latin comparabilis, from comparare 'to place side by side, match' (com- 'together' + par 'equal'); by surface analysis compare + -able.
來自拉丁文 comparābilis，源自 comparāre（並列、相配），拆開是 com-（一起）+ pār（相等，就是 par、pair 的親戚）。字根裡同時有「放在一起」和「相等」兩個成分，這剛好對上現代的兩層意思：一層強調「放得到一起」，一層強調「大致相等」。
Wiktionary (comparable ← Latin comparābilis ← comparāre, com- + pār)
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原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
comparableadj/ˈkɒmpəɹəbəl/
- 1
Able to be compared (to).
- An elephant is comparable in size to a double-decker bus.
- You can't say that robbing a bank is like pickpocketing. The two are just not comparable.
- 2
Similar (to); like.
- Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.
- 3
mathematicssciencesConstituting a pair in a particular partial order.
- Six and forty-two are comparable in the divides order, but six and nine are not.
- 4
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsHaving comparative and superlative forms.
- "Big" is a comparable adjective because it can take the forms "bigger" and "biggest"; "unique" and "amazing", in contrast, are not comparable adjectives.
comparablenoun/ˈkɒmpəɹəbəl/
- 1
Something suitable for comparison.
- And the appraiser said he couldn't come up with comparables, because there hadn't been any sales nearby in several months.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。