Discrepancy

//dɪˈskɹɛpənsi// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An inconsistency between facts or sentiments. countable, uncountable

    "They found a discrepancy between the first set of test results and the second, and they're still trying to figure out why."

  2. 2
    a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions wordnet
  3. 3
    The state or quality of being discrepant. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    an event that departs from expectations wordnet

Example

More examples

"The discrepancy between the stories of the two parties involved in the accident was so great that the authorities had a hard time deciding which side was telling the truth."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin discrepantia, from discrepans, from discrepō, from crepō. By surface analysis, discrepant + -cy. See also discrepant.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.