difference, distance, error, remoteness, unlikeness, variation.
The approximation _of_ the vegetable _to_ the animal type.
accouterments, armor, harness, mail, weapons.
_Arms_ are implements of attack; _armor_ is a defensive covering. The knight put on his _armor_; he grasped his _arms_. With the disuse of defensive _armor_ the word has practically gone out of military use, but it is still employed in the navy, where the distinction is clearly preserved; any vessel provided with cannon is an _armed_ vessel; an _armored_ ship is an ironclad. Anything that can be wielded in fight may become a _weapon_, as a pitchfork or a paving-stone; _arms_ are especially made and designed for conflict.
armament, forces, military, soldiers, array, host, multitude, soldiery, force, legions, phalanx, troops.
An _army_ is an organized body of men armed for war, ordinarily considerable in numbers, always independent in organization so far as not to be a constituent part of any other command. Organization, unity, and independence, rather than numbers are the essentials of an _army_. We speak of the invading _army_ of Cortes or Pizarro, tho either body was contemptible in numbers from a modern military standpoint. We may have a little _army_, a large _army_, or a vast _army_. _Host_ is used for any vast and orderly assemblage; as, the stars are called the heavenly _host_. _Multitude_ expresses number without order or organization; a _multitude_ of armed men is not an _army_, but a mob. _Legion_ (from the Latin) and _phalanx_ (from the Greek) are applied by a kind of poetic license to modern _forces_; the plural _legions_ is preferred to the singular. _Military_ is a general word for land-_forces_; the _military_ may include all the armed _soldiery_ of a nation, or the term may be applied to any small detached company, as at a fort, in distinction from civilians. Any organized body of men by whom the law or will of a people is executed is a _force_; the word is a usual term for the police of any locality.
accuse, charge, impeach, prosecute, censure, cite, indict, summon.
_Arraign_ is an official word; a person accused of crime is _arraigned_ when he is formally called into court, the indictment read to him, and the demand made of him to plead guilty or not guilty; in more extended use, to _arraign_ is to call in question for fault in any formal, public, or official way. One may _charge_ another with any fault, great or trifling, privately or publicly, formally or informally. _Accuse_ is stronger than _charge_, suggesting more of the formal and criminal; a person may _charge_ a friend with unkindness or neglect; he may _accuse_ a tramp of stealing. _Censure_ carries the idea of fault, but not of crime; it may be private and individual, or public and official. A judge, a president, or other officer of high rank may be _impeached_ before the appropriate tribunal for high crimes; the veracity of a witness may be _impeached_ by damaging evidence. A person of the highest character may be _summoned_ as defendant in a civil suit; or he may be _cited_ to answer as administrator, etc. _Indict_ and _arraign_ apply strictly to criminal proceedings, and only an alleged criminal is _indicted_ or _arraigned_. One is _indicted_ by the grand jury, and _arraigned_ before the appropriate court.