dissimilarity

What it means

1. countableuncountableA lack of similarity or a lack of likeness in appearance to something else.

   1 more example

   The experiment was abandoned when one fine day spontaneous combustion of the pulverised coal in the container occurred, and a black cloud of the very finely divided fuel rose into the air by the force of the explosion, and was slowly wafted by the prevailing breeze over the town, upon which it descended with the resemblance of black snow, but with the dissimilarity that it did not melt.

   1940 May, “The Why and the Wherefore: Pulverised Fuel Experiment”, in Railway Magazine, page 318

   Synonyms: dissimilitude, nonresemblance, disparity, dissemblance, dissimilitude, unalikeness, unlikeness · Antonyms: similarity, resemblance, likeness, sameness

In a sentence

The experiment was abandoned when one fine day spontaneous combustion of the pulverised coal in the container occurred, and a black cloud of the very finely divided fuel rose into the air by the force of the explosion, and was slowly wafted by the prevailing breeze over the town, upon which it descended with the resemblance of black snow, but with the dissimilarity that it did not melt.

1940 May, “The Why and the Wherefore: Pulverised Fuel Experiment”, in Railway Magazine, page 318

Where it comes from

From dis- + similarity or dissimilar + -ity.