anisomorphism

English edit

From an- +‎ isomorphism.

anisomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural anisomorphisms)

(linguistics, lexicography) The absence of an exact correspondence between words etc. in two different languages; the differences between two given languages that create mismatches in a translation dictionary.^[1]
Antonyms: bijection, isomorphism
- 2011, David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, Penguin, published 2012, page 82:
  These well-known examples of the ‘imperfect matching’ or anisomorphism of languages do not really support the conclusion that translation is impossible.

differences between two languages