same difference

same difference

1. (idiomatic) A distinction which makes no difference; a distinction which does not matter.
   • 2011, Constance Briscoe, The Accused, →ISBN, p. 274 (Google preview):

     "When you say she was a tart, do you mean a whore?"

     "It's the same difference," Betty said.

• Often used in a grammatically incomplete form, as a pro-sentence, meaning "That is a distinction which makes no significant difference." For example:

2000 July 31, Lev Grossman, "Report From MacWorld Expo," Time:

Apple as a company has been as much about design as about technology. Is it in danger of putting form ahead of function? Same difference, says Jobs.

• as broad as long
• same thing
• distinction without a difference
• potayto, potahto
• six of one, half a dozen of the other
• tomayto, tomahto

• much of a muchness