alike

English

Etymology

From Middle English alike, alyke, alyche, aleche, and earlier ilike, ilik, ylike, yliche, ylich, elik, ȝelic, from Old English ġelīċ (“like; alike; similar; equal”) and Old English onlīċ, anlīċ ("like; similar; equal"; > Middle English anlike, onlich (compare German ähnlich), reinforced by Old Norse álíkr, 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”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈlaɪk/
• Rhymes: -aɪk

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

alike (comparative more alike, superlative most alike)

1. Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.

   The twins were alike.

   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7:

     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.

Derived terms

• alike-minded
• alikeness
• great minds think alike
• look alike
• look-alike
• smell-alike
• sound-alike

 

Translations

having resemblance; similar

• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 相似 (zh) (xiāngsì), 相同 (zh) (xiāngtóng), 一樣／一样 (zh) (yīyàng), 同樣／同样 (zh) (tóngyàng)

• Dutch: gelijk (nl), hetzelfde (nl)
• Finnish: samanlainen (fi), samannäköinen
• French: semblable (fr), pareil (fr), analogue (fr)
• Georgian: მსგავსი (ka) (msgavsi)
• German: gleich (de)
• Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 (galeiks)
• Hungarian: egyforma (hu), ugyanolyan (hu), hasonló (hu)
• Irish: mar a chéile, cosúil le chéile, mar an gcéanna
• Italian: simile (it)
• Japanese: 同じような (onaji yō na)
• Kapampangan: katulid
• Khmer: ដូចគ្នា (douc kniə)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Manx: colaik
• Maori: oropapa
• Portuguese: parecido (pt), semelhante (pt), similar (pt)
• Russian: одина́ковый (ru) (odinákovyj), подо́бный (ru) (podóbnyj), похо́жий (ru) (poxóžij), схо́жий (ru) (sxóžij), тако́й же (ru) (takój že)
• Spanish: igual (es), semejante (es), parecido (es)
• Swedish: likadan (sv), lika (sv), liknande (sv)
• Tagalog: kagaya (tl), katulad
• Vietnamese: na ná (vi), giông giống (vi), tương tự (vi)

Adverb

alike (comparative more alike, superlative most alike)

1. In the same manner, form, or degree; in common; equally.

   We are all alike concerned in religion.

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 73:

     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.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

Derived terms

• share and share alike

Translations

tn the same manner, form, or degree; equally

• Finnish: yhtä (fi), yhtäläisesti
• French: pareillement (fr)
• German: gleichermaßen (de), gleich (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὁμῶς (homôs)

• Hungarian: egyaránt (hu), egyformán, hasonlóképpen (hu)
• Irish: mar an gcéanna
• Italian: similmente (it), ugualmente (it)
• Portuguese: igualmente (pt), similarmente
• Russian: одина́ково (ru) (odinákovo), подо́бно (ru) (podóbno), похо́же (ru) (poxóže), то́чно та́к же (tóčno ták že)
• Spanish: igualmente (es)
• Vietnamese: đều (vi)

Anagrams

• Kalie, alkie

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English ylike, from Old English ġelīc, from Proto-West Germanic *galīk.

Adverb

alike

1. alike
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 9:

     and whilke we canna zei, albeit o' 'Governere,' 'Statesman,' an alike.

     and for which we have no words but of 'Governor,' 'Statesman,' &c.

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 114