Word of the Day: April 21, 2026

What It Means

Followed by to or (archaic) unto: to regard or state that (someone or something) is like another person or thing; to compare.

Chiefly followed by to: to make (oneself, someone, or something) resemble another person or thing.

To represent or symbolize (something).

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

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Liken in Context

“Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man, / That likeneth him to his Maker, who spake, and it was done.”

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Did You Know?

From Middle English liknen (“to be comparable; to compare (often disparagingly); to make (someone) equal to another person; to regard (something) as equal to another thing; to regard (something) as likely; to resemble; to take (something) as a substitute; to apply, be adapted or suitable; to tend (to sin)”) [and other forms], from liken (“to be comparable; to compare; to be appropriate; to form”), from lik (“alike, analogous, similar; appropriate, suitable; equal; homogeneous; identical, the same; indicative; likely (to be or do something), probable; possible; simultaneous; more or most like (?)”) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs). Lik is derived from Old English ġelīċ (“like, similar”), from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“like, similar; equal”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“like, similar; even, level”). The English word is analysable as like (adjective) + -en (suffix forming verbs with the sense ‘to make [adjective]’).