liken

English

Etymology

From Middle English liken (“to compare; to be comparable, be equal; to form; to be appropriate”), equivalent to like +‎ -en.

Pronunciation

• enPR: lī'kən, IPA: /ˈlaɪkən/, X-SAMPA: /"laIk@n/
• Rhymes: -aɪkən
• Homophone: lichen

Verb

liken (third-person singular simple present likens, present participle likening, simple past and past participle likened)

1. (transitive, followed by to or unto) To compare; to state that (something) is like (something else).

   The physics teacher likened the effect of mass on space to an indentation in a sheet of rubber.

Translations

compare

• Dutch: vergelijken (nl)
• Finnish: verrata (fi)
• French: comparer (fr)

• German: vergleichen (de)
• Swedish: jämföra (sv)

Anagrams

• k-line

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Middle Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈliːkən/

Etymology 1

Verb

liken

1. Alternative form of geliken.

Conjugation

This Middle Dutch verb needs an inflection-table template.

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch *līkon, from Proto-Germanic *līkijaną.

Verb

liken

1. to please, (in archaic English usage) to like

Conjugation

This Middle Dutch verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: lijken

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Swedish

Noun

liken

1. definite singular of like
2. definite plural of lik