alike
/əˈlaɪk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.13 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.
name
A village in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, India.
Example Sentences
- "Twins are physically alike, that is, similar-looking people on the outside."
- "We are all alike concerned in religion."
- "As the Knight himself seemed tacitly to disclaim alike interest and controul over the immediate favourite of his lady, young Roland was, by circumstances, exempted from the strict discipline to which, as the retainer of a Scottish man of rank, he would otherwise have been subjected, according to all the rigour of the age."
- "Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations."
- "The wide prospect up stream was grey and lowering, the long still-distant waterfront of Dundee, and the Fife shore were alike colourless, and there was ample evidence of rough weather not far ahead."
- "The new policy will benefit employees and customers alike."
Etymology
The adjective comes from a conflation of several different terms: * Middle English alich, alych, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anlich, anlyke, from Old English onlīċ, anlīċ. Compare German ähnlich. * The borrowed Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíkr, ultimately yielding similar Late Middle English forms. * Middle English ylich, ylych, ilich, ylik, ylike, ȝelic, from Old English ġelīċ (“like; alike; similar; equal”), from Proto-West Germanic *galīk, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“alike, similar”). Cognate with Scots elyke, alyke (“like, alike”), Saterland Frisian gliek (“like, alike”), West Frisian lyk, gelyk (“like, alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German Low German liek, gliek (“like, alike”), German gleich (“equal, like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Swedish lik (“like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”). Equivalent to a- (Etymology 3) + like. Compare also West Frisian allyk (“all the same, alike”). Similarly, the adverb also comes from a conflation of several different terms: * Middle English aliche, alyche, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anliche, anlyke, from Old English onlīċe, anlīċe. * Additionally Middle English oliche, olike, ultimately from the Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíka. * Middle English yliche, ylyche, iliche, ylike, ȝelice, from Old English ġelīċe (“alike, similarly”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: alich, onlīċ, -, ylich, ġelīċ, *galīk
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈlaɪk/
- British English: /əˈlaɪk/
Inflected Forms
more alike (comparative)
most alike (superlative)