Similar
adjectiveResembling something else without being exactly the same.
How to spell similar
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce similar
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does similar mean?
- adjectiveResembling something else without being exactly the same.
Similar in a sentence
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The two job offers were similar in salary but very different in hours.
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Her handwriting is remarkably similar to her mother's.
Where does similar come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word comes from the Latin similis, meaning 'like' or 'resembling', which itself traces back to an older root meaning 'one and the same' that also gave us the words 'same' and 'simultaneous'. English picked it up in the late 1500s, partly through French similaire, to describe things that share qualities without being identical. The same simil- root sits inside a whole family of relatives, including 'simile', the figure of speech that compares one thing to another, and 'assimilate', which literally means 'to make alike'. The classic spelling trap is the unstressed middle and ending: the second vowel is a faint schwa, and the word ends in -ar rather than the more common -er, so writers often slip and produce 'similer' or 'similiar'. Keeping the link to 'simile' in mind helps anchor the single i in the middle.
How the word is built
- simil- (from Latin similis: like, resembling)
- -ar (adjective suffix)
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