a number of vs different

a number of

phrase

  • Several. 

  • Several of. 

different

noun

  • The different ideal. 

adv

  • Differently. 

adj

  • Not the same; exhibiting a difference. 

  • Distinct, separate; used for emphasis after numbers and other determiners of quantity. 

  • Various, assorted, diverse. 

  • Unlike most others; unusual. 

How often have the words a number of and different occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )