"distinction without a difference" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "distinctions without a difference",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "distinctions without differences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "distinctions without a difference",
        "2": "distinctions without differences"
      },
      "expansion": "distinction without a difference (plural distinctions without a difference or distinctions without differences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1831, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in Homeward Bound",
          "text": "\"'The Active Inquirer' is the present name, though when we supported Mr. Adams it was called 'The Active Enquirer,' with an E.\"\n\"A distinction without a difference; I like that,\" interrupted Captain Truck.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1880, Mark Twain, Concerning the American Language, being part of a chapter which was crowded out of A Tramp Abroad",
          "text": "I said . . . I did not speak English at all—I only spoke American. He laughed, and said it was a distinction without a difference. I said no, the difference was not prodigious, but still it was considerable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 December 25, “Obliterating the Effect”, in Time",
          "text": "The fact that the sit-in convictions were under state rather than federal law, ruled last week's majority, is \"a distinction without a difference.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996 June 13, “Editorial: A setback for attempts to censor the Internet”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin",
          "text": "\"Obscene\" is a higher standard than \"indecent,\" although it seems like a distinction without a difference.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 June 29, Cass R. Sunstein, “The Supreme Court's conservative divide”, in The New Republic Online",
          "text": "The Bush Administration attempted to distinguish the current case from Flast. . . . Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court of appeals, responded that this was a distinction without a difference. In the end, all money is appropriated by Congress.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, The Jews: A History, John M Efron, Steven Weitzman, and Matthias B Lehmann",
          "text": "[Attacking European Jews while claiming to avenge Palestinian deaths], of course, collapses the distinction between Israeli Jews and those from European countries, making a mockery of the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. For the terrorists, it is a distinction without a difference.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference."
      ],
      "id": "en-distinction_without_a_difference-en-noun-mvubVsKb",
      "links": [
        [
          "set phrase",
          "set phrase"
        ],
        [
          "linguistic",
          "linguistic"
        ],
        [
          "conceptual",
          "conceptual"
        ],
        [
          "practical",
          "practical"
        ],
        [
          "importance",
          "importance"
        ],
        [
          "effect",
          "effect"
        ],
        [
          "meaning",
          "meaning"
        ],
        [
          "perceived",
          "perceived"
        ],
        [
          "actual",
          "actual"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "set phrase",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(set phrase) A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "much of a muchness"
        },
        {
          "word": "same difference"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "perceived, but not actual difference",
          "word": "merkityksetön ero"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "perceived, but not actual difference",
          "word": "אבחנת פנטום"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "distinction without a difference"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "distinction without a difference"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "distinctions without a difference",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "distinctions without differences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "distinctions without a difference",
        "2": "distinctions without differences"
      },
      "expansion": "distinction without a difference (plural distinctions without a difference or distinctions without differences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "much of a muchness"
    },
    {
      "word": "same difference"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1831, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in Homeward Bound",
          "text": "\"'The Active Inquirer' is the present name, though when we supported Mr. Adams it was called 'The Active Enquirer,' with an E.\"\n\"A distinction without a difference; I like that,\" interrupted Captain Truck.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1880, Mark Twain, Concerning the American Language, being part of a chapter which was crowded out of A Tramp Abroad",
          "text": "I said . . . I did not speak English at all—I only spoke American. He laughed, and said it was a distinction without a difference. I said no, the difference was not prodigious, but still it was considerable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964 December 25, “Obliterating the Effect”, in Time",
          "text": "The fact that the sit-in convictions were under state rather than federal law, ruled last week's majority, is \"a distinction without a difference.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996 June 13, “Editorial: A setback for attempts to censor the Internet”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin",
          "text": "\"Obscene\" is a higher standard than \"indecent,\" although it seems like a distinction without a difference.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 June 29, Cass R. Sunstein, “The Supreme Court's conservative divide”, in The New Republic Online",
          "text": "The Bush Administration attempted to distinguish the current case from Flast. . . . Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court of appeals, responded that this was a distinction without a difference. In the end, all money is appropriated by Congress.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, The Jews: A History, John M Efron, Steven Weitzman, and Matthias B Lehmann",
          "text": "[Attacking European Jews while claiming to avenge Palestinian deaths], of course, collapses the distinction between Israeli Jews and those from European countries, making a mockery of the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. For the terrorists, it is a distinction without a difference.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "set phrase",
          "set phrase"
        ],
        [
          "linguistic",
          "linguistic"
        ],
        [
          "conceptual",
          "conceptual"
        ],
        [
          "practical",
          "practical"
        ],
        [
          "importance",
          "importance"
        ],
        [
          "effect",
          "effect"
        ],
        [
          "meaning",
          "meaning"
        ],
        [
          "perceived",
          "perceived"
        ],
        [
          "actual",
          "actual"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "set phrase",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(set phrase) A linguistic or conceptual distinction which is of no practical importance or which has no effect on meaning; a perceived difference where there is no actual difference."
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "distinction without a difference"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "perceived, but not actual difference",
      "word": "merkityksetön ero"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "perceived, but not actual difference",
      "word": "אבחנת פנטום"
    }
  ],
  "word": "distinction without a difference"
}