Similarity

How to spell similarity

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce similarity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does similarity mean?

1. nounThe state of resembling something else, or a particular point on which two things are alike.

Similarity in a sentence

• The auditor noted a striking similarity between the two invoices.

• There is little similarity between her early work and her later style.

Where does similarity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin adjective similis, which meant 'like' or 'resembling', the same root that gives us 'similar', 'simile', and 'assimilate'. From similis, Latin formed the noun similitas to describe the quality of being alike, and that idea passed through French before settling into English. The English noun was built on the adjective 'similar' by adding the abstract suffix -ity, a pattern that turns a describing word into a name for the quality it describes, much as 'pure' becomes 'purity'. 'Similar' itself entered English in the late 1500s and 'similarity' followed not long after, in the 1600s, as scholars needed a tidy noun for the degree to which two things resemble each other. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed vowel in simil-AR is a faint schwa, so writers are tempted to drop a letter or swap the -ar for -er, even though the Latin -ar ending is the reason it stays.

How the word is built

• simil- (from Latin similis: like, resembling)
• -ar (adjective suffix)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix marking a quality or state)