Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to draw parallel

to draw parallel

7 4.6
Point out similarities between two or more things to show how they are alike
  • phrasal verb
  • /drɔː ˈpærəˌlɛl/
translation icon : establecer un paralelo
  • Countless other early colonists drew direct parallels between the lives they were living and the stories of Israel.
  • draw an implicit parallel
  • draw historical parallels
  • draw a parallel between two

And you can sort of quietly draw a parallel between math and consciousness.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • At the same time, the magistrates drew implicit parallels between themselves and past leaders.

    Academic text (1999)

  • And you can sort of quietly draw a parallel between math and consciousness.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • And that is how we drew parallels with the family and with the city.

  • I think I've said this before, but I will draw the parallel to another industry.

    Blog text (29)

  • Ganji-on-the-Cliffs had a similar port, and it was no hard task for him to draw parallels between them.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • I mean, you draw the parallel between him and Pablo Escobar.

  • Unlike Denny, Duranty did not attempt to draw parallels between Russia and the United States.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Marjorie Garber of Harvard draws a parallel between the Lewinsky affair and the Megillah.

    Academic text (2010)

  • You see, Eliot is borrowing from Dante's Inferno, drawing a parallel between his century and the Florentine poet's vision of hell.

    Our Kind of Traitor (2016)

  • In her lecture, the professor drew parallel between modern technology and ancient inventions to highlight their impact on society.

Synonyms

to compare
vsto draw parallel
932 1.4

To look at more than one thing and show how they are the same or different

focuses specifically on noting similarities often to form an analogy
to analogize
vsto draw parallel
  • US
3 7.9

To compare one thing with another to explain it

highlights similarities mainly to show comparison rather than to explain by analogy

How Similar

to conflate
  • Formal
33 7.5
to equate
95 4.4
to draw parallel
7 4.6
to compare
932 1.4
to note
951 1.6

Surface Forms

draw parallel infinitive
drawing parallels present participle
draw parallels third person singular
drew parallel past
drawn parallel past participle

Morphology

draw + parallel

The noun 'parallel' clearly signals resemblance and 'draw' can mean 'to produce or establish', so a learner who knows both constituents can plausibly infer the sense 'to point out or establish similarities'. However, 'draw' is used metaphorically here (not literal drawing), and the exact collocation 'draw parallels' may not be immediately obvious to all B1 learners without some exposure, so the transparency is limited.

Etymology

The phrase draw parallel comes from the simple image of using a pen to draw two straight parallel lines next to each other to show they are similar. So, to draw parallel means 'to point out similarities' between two things.