likeness

noun

1)

her likeness to Anne is quite uncanny

Syn:

resemblance, similarity, similitude, correspondence

Ant:

dissimilarity

2)

she appeared in the likeness of a ghost

Syn:

semblance, guise, appearance, outward form, form, shape, image

3)

a likeness of the president

Syn:

representation, image, depiction, portrayal; picture, drawing, sketch, painting, portrait, photograph, study; statue, sculpture

••

likeness, affinity, analogy, resemblance, similarity, similitude

Two sisters who are only a year apart in age and who are very similar to each other in terms of appearance and personality would be said to bear a likeness to one another. Similarity applies to people or things that are merely somewhat alike (there was a similarity between the two women, both of whom were raised in the Midwest), while resemblance suggests a similarity only in appearance or in superficial or external ways (with their short hair and blue eyes, they bore a strong resemblance to each other). Affinity adds to resemblance a natural kinship, temperamental sympathy, common experience, or some other relationship (she has an affinity for young children). Similitude is a more literary word meaning likeness or similarity in reference to abstract things (a similitude of the truth). An analogy is a comparison of things that are basically unlike but share certain attributes or circumstances (he drew an analogy between the human heart and a bicycle pump).