Alike

How to spell alike

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce alike

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alike mean?

1. adjectiveSimilar to one another in appearance, character, or quality.
2. adverbIn the same way or to the same degree.

Alike in a sentence

• adjective

  The twins look so alike that even their teachers confuse them.

• adverb

  The new policy treats full-time and part-time staff alike.

• adjective

  The two reports were remarkably alike in their conclusions.

• adverb

  The festival appeals to children and adults alike.

Where does alike come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from Old English, where it appeared as onlic and gelic, meaning 'similar' or 'resembling'. The root lic originally meant 'body' or 'form', so to be gelic was literally to share the same form or shape, an idea that survives faintly in words like 'likeness' and even the old sense of 'lych' in lych-gate. The opening 'a-' is a worn-down survival of an old prefix used to intensify or to mean roughly 'in the state of', the same element seen in 'asleep', 'aloud', and 'apart'. By Middle English the two old forms had blended into the single short word we now write as alike. Because the modern spelling is so plain and regular, with the familiar word 'like' sitting clearly inside it, the term gives most adult writers no trouble at all.

How the word is built

• a- (from Old English on/ge-, an intensive prefix)
• like (similar, from Old English gelic)