Definition
adjNot different or other; not another or others; not different as regards self; selfsame; identical.
adjLacking variety from; indistinguishable.
Sentence Examples
I can only wonder if this is the same for everyone else.
Maybe it will be exactly the same for him.
We have lived in the same house for twenty years.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English same, from Old Norse samr (“same”) and/or Old English same, sama (“same”) in the phrase swā same (swā) (“in like manner, in the same way (as)”), both from Proto-Germanic *samaz (“same”), from Proto-Indo-European *somHós (“same”). Doublet of some and -some.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots samin (“same, like, together”), Dutch samen (“together”), Danish samme (“same”), Swedish samma (“same”), Norwegian Bokmål samme (“same”), Norwegian Nynorsk same (“same”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰 (sama), a weak adjectival form, Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós, “same”), Old Irish som, Russian са́мый (sámyj), Sanskrit सम (samá), Persian هم (ham, “also, same”), Finnish sama (“same”), Estonian sama (“same”).
Unrelated to similar words in Austronesian languages, including Malagasy samy (“both, each, everyone; same”); Indonesian and Malay sama (“same, equal, together, exactly like”); Lauan dama (“mate, fellow, corresponding part; exactly like, the same”), 'Are'are tama (“in line, in pairs”). All of which originated from Proto-Austronesian *sama (“both, each, everyone, fellow, together, corresponding part; exactly like, in pairs, in line; same”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Our space may be really same (of equal curvature), but its degree of curvature may change as a whole with the time."
— 1885, William Kingdon Clifford, chapter IV, in The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences:
"I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"If two persons bore the same name, and confusion was likely to be caused, ambiguity was avoided by adding the name of the father […]"
— 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii:
"They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups."
— 1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9:
"She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill."
— 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court: