unterschiedlichen

Unterschiedlichen is the declined plural form of the German adjective unterschiedlich. It denotes variety or differences and is used to describe how items, people, or ideas differ from one another. As a plural attributive form, it appears before nouns and after determiners in various cases.

In attributive use, unterschiedlich- forms depend on case and article. For example, with a definite article in nominative or accusative plural you say die unterschiedlichen Ansichten; in dative plural you say mit den unterschiedlichen Ansätzen; in genitive plural you might encounter der unterschiedlichen Merkmale. Without a determiner, the strong declension gives unterschiedliche Beispiele. In predicative position, however, the form is unterschiedlich, as in Die Ergebnisse sind unterschiedlich.

Unterschiedlich derives from difference (Unterschied) plus the suffix -lich, which yields the adjective meaning “different, varying, diverse.” The plural form shown here simply reflects standard German adjective inflection and does not constitute a separate lexical item.

Common collocations include unterschiedliche Ansichten, Ansätze, Meinungen, Arten, Gründe, and Ergebnisse. The term is often used in contexts ranging from science and politics to everyday discourse to emphasize non-uniformity or heterogeneity. Synonyms include verschieden, divers, verschiedenartig, and variabel; antonyms include gleich or identisch.

Notes on usage: as with other adjectives, the form differences depend on whether the article is definite, indefinite, or absent, and on the grammatical case. When speaking generally about variety, one can use unterschiedliche without article ( unterschiedliche Gründe ); when specifying particular items, die unterschiedlichen Gründe is typical. The adverbial sense of variation is conveyed with differently as an adverbial usage of unterschiedlich, as in Die Methoden arbeiten unterschiedlich.

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