apples and oranges
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Fundamentally different.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Thus, in effect, ICI and GEC — and all UK companies which use historical cost money accounting — are adding and subtracting apples and oranges.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “apples and oranges” mean?
Fundamentally different.
Is “apples and oranges” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.