apples and oranges

Two unlike things or people. A global tech company and a farming co-op are apples to oranges, so comparing their marketing strategies isn't exactly practical, don't you think? My mom and my mother-in-law are just apples and oranges. They should not be left alone in the same room for too long! Come on, you're a nurse and I'm an engineer—our work worlds are apples and oranges!

Fig. two entities that are not similar. (Used especially in reference to comparisons of unlike things.) You can't talk about Fred and Ted in the same breath! They're like apples and oranges. Talking about her current book and her previous bestseller is like comparing apples and oranges.

Unlike objects or persons, as in Assessing the problems of the neighborhood grocery by examining a giant supermarket is comparing apples and oranges . This metaphor for dissimilarity began as apples and oysters, which appeared in John Ray's proverb collection of 1670. It is nearly always accompanied by a warning that one cannot compare such different categories.

If you say that two things are apples and oranges, you mean that they are completely different and cannot be compared. We really can't compare the data any more, it's not the same — it's just apples and oranges. Note: You can also say that comparing two things is like comparing apples with oranges. To compare one with the other is to make the mistake we were all warned about in third grade, not to compare apples with oranges.