likeness
/ˈlaɪknəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.34 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Appearance or form; guise.
Example Sentences
- "I bear no likeness to my parents whatsoever."
- "Erich thought he observed a likeness between the stranger and a relative of Walther; this led them into the chapter of likenesses, and the strange way in which certain forms repeat themselves in families, often most distinctly in the most remote ramifications."
- "A foe in the likeness of a friend"
- "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
- "How he looked, the likenesses of him which still remain enable us to imagine."
- "At this moment Mr. Glentworth's eye fell on a little pencilled sketch of himself. In her joy at seeing the original, Isabella had forgotten the copy. Again a bright scarlet passed over her face; and her companion, from that necessity of saying something which originates more subjects of conversation than any thing else, observed, "I did not know you had a talent for taking likenesses.""
Etymology
From Middle English liknesse, from Old English līcness, ġelīcnes (“the quality of being like or equal; likeness; image; copy; pattern; example; parable”), from Proto-West Germanic *galīkanassī (“likeness”), equivalent to like + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian likenis (“likeness”), Dutch gelijkenis (“similarity; likeness; parable”), German Low German Glieknis (“form; semblance; likeness; parable”), German Gleichnis (“form; semblance; image; likeness; parable; simile”). The verb is derived from the noun. Compare also Old Norse líkneskja (“figure, image, appearance, likeness”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: liknesse, līcness, *galīkanassī