alike

See also: alìke and Alike

English

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”).

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.

   Twins are physically alike, that is, similar-looking people on the outside.

   • 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.

Antonyms

• unlike

Derived terms

• a-alike
• alike-minded
• alikeness
• book-alike
• cigalike
• great minds think alike
• key alike
• look alike
• lookalike
• look-alike
• smell-alike
• sound-alike
• soundalike
• unalike
• workalike

Translations

having resemblance; similar

• Albanian: njësoj (sq)
• Bulgarian: една́къв (bg) (ednákǎv), подо́бен (bg) (podóben), схо́ден (bg) (shóden)
• 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)

• Chinook Jargon: kåh'-kwa
• 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)
• Ingrian: näköin, samantapain
• Irish: mar a chéile, cosúil le chéile, mar an gcéanna
• Italian: simile (it)
• Japanese: 同じような (onaji yō na)
• Kapampangan: katulid
• Khiamniungan Naga: èm, ùo
• Khmer: ដូចគ្នា (douc kniə)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Manx: colaik
• Maori: oropapa
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: лишыл (ĺišyl)

• Portuguese: parecido (pt), semelhante (pt), similar (pt), afim (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, katulad
• Turkish: benzer (tr), müşabih (tr), mümasil (tr)
• 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.

   1. Used after a list of subjects to indicate that something applies equally to all of them.

      The new policy will benefit employees and customers alike.

      • 1957 December, J. G. Alderson, “By Rail Through the Andes in Ecuador”, in Railway Magazine, page 837:

        In the words of an official report (that might well apply to all the railways): "Public interest in the region of Cuenca is not favourable towards completion of the railway, probably because it has shifted towards the road construction programme now being favoured by the Government and public alike."

      • 2022 February 18, Jamelle Bouie, “Opinion: You Just Can’t Tell the Truth About America Anymore”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 May 2023:

        There is a dangerous censoriousness pulsing through American society. In small towns and big cities alike, would-be commissars are fighting, in the name of a distinct minority of Americans, to stifle open discussion and impose their views on the community at large. Dissenters, when they speak out, are hounded, ostracized and sometimes even forced from their jobs.

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 (hu), 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), similarmente, de la misma manera, por igual
• Vietnamese: đều (vi)

Anagrams

• Kalie, alkie

Yola

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈliːk/

Adverb

alike

1. alike
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 7-9:

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

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

Related terms

• lick

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), 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, published 1867, page 114