Resembling

How to spell resembling

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce resembling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resembling mean?

1. verbLooking or being like something or someone else; bearing a likeness to.

Resembling in a sentence

• The new manager has a calm manner resembling his predecessor.

• She painted a portrait closely resembling her late grandmother.

Where does resembling come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb resemble, which English took from Old French resembler in the 1300s. That French verb was built from the prefix re-, used here as an intensifier, and sembler, meaning 'to seem' or 'to be like', which descends from the Latin similare, 'to make like' or 'to copy', and ultimately from similis, meaning 'like' or 'similar'. The same similis root also gives us the everyday words 'similar', 'simulate', and 'assemble', so the family connection is wide. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the silent-feeling 'sem' followed by 'bl' often tempts writers to drop a letter or swap the vowel, even though it simply mirrors French sembler. Knowing it shares its bones with 'similar' helps keep the single 's' and the 'sem' in place.

How the word is built

• re- (intensive, from Latin)
• semble (from Old French sembler: to seem, be like)
• -ing (present participle suffix)