Word.ws English Dictionary

-like

US/-laɪk/

-like suffix: resembling, having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns).

Suffix

-like (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -like, superlative most -like)

  1. Resembling, having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns).
    • Even at 13 years old, she still had a childlike voice.
    • I saw the snake-like coils of the garden hose peeking out from under the deck.
  2. (dialectal) Used to form adverbs from adjectives or nouns; alternative of -ly.
    • The Spanish speak machine-gun-like.
    • Hah! Big, bad Punio. Listen to yourself! Trying to sound all important-like!2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Boggly Woods

-like meaning in Malayalam, Arabic and Persian

-like in Malayalam

having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns)
പോലത്തെ pōlatte

-like in Arabic

having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns)
كَـ ka-

-like in Persian

having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns)
ـدیس -dis, ـوش -vaš

Synonyms of -like

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of -like

comparativemore -like
superlativemost -like

Origin of -like

From Middle English -like, -lik, from Middle English like, lik (“same, similar, alike”), from Old English ġelīc and Old Norse líkr (“same, similar, alike”). Reinforced by like (preposition). Doublet of -ly. Compare also Dutch -lijk (“-ly, -like”).

Questions about -like

What does -like mean?
-like means resembling, having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns).
What is -like in Malayalam?
-like in Malayalam is പോലത്തെ (pōlatte). See -like meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is -like?
-like is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -like?
-like is pronounced /-laɪk/ (US).

Words near -like in the dictionary

  1. -li-
  2. -licious
  3. -lie
  4. -lier
  5. -liest
  6. -like
  7. -lim-
  8. -limnion
  9. -lin
  10. -ling
  11. -lings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -like (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-like.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-like. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.