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When we need to express differentiating two things we can say "draw a (clear) line between A and B", but can we extend two things to three or more things? Can we say something like "draw two lines among three things" or "draw several lines among these things(A, B, C, D, E, F, and G)"?

Or any more appropriate sayings? Thanks in advance.

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  • Is this in a mathematics context? Geometry, networks, etc? There is specific terminology that mathematicians use for this.
    – John Feltz
    Mar 18, 2020 at 15:02
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    If you're using it as an idiom, do not deviate from the dictionary form.
    – user3395
    Mar 18, 2020 at 15:13
  • For several (non-mathematical) things, it is better to talk about "clear boundaries" between them.
    – Weather Vane
    Mar 18, 2020 at 16:58

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With three items to be distinguished from each other, three different lines are possible. It gets cumbersome to specify the number of lines, especially with more than three items. Instead, you can say "We need to draw clear lines between three different cases." Also, you can say "We need to distinguish/differentiate [between] three different cases."
The word "between" is optional there.

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  • I haven't been able to find any examples of this phrase being used for more than two things, otherwise I'd post my own answer. Two is definitely the expected number, but more than two doesn't sound strange to me. "We need to draw a line between A, B, C, and D."
    – CJ Dennis
    Mar 19, 2020 at 2:46

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