Megalocomparison
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Long-range comparison; especially, far-fetched long-range comparison that cannot sufficiently demonstrate any genetic relationship. derogatory, historical, often, uncommon, uncountable
"Megalocomparison takes on any more remote relationship, where sound-correspondences are not regular and putative cognates are few, so that chance rivals genetic relationship as the explanation for perceived similarities."
Example
More examples"Megalocomparison takes on any more remote relationship, where sound-correspondences are not regular and putative cognates are few, so that chance rivals genetic relationship as the explanation for perceived similarities."
Etymology
From megalo- + comparison, coined by Matisoff (1990) in a critique of Joseph Greenberg's "mass comparison" (see quotation below).
More for "megalocomparison"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.