alike

Meanings

1. Similar to each other in appearance or character.
2. In the same way.

Example sentences

• "The twins dress alike so often that even their teacher confuses them."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

• "The two brothers look alike."

  Level A1, Meaning 1

• "The rules apply to men and women alike."

  Level B2, Meaning 2

• "My sister and I think alike about money."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• similar : Similar can be used before a noun, as in a similar idea. Alike cannot.
• same : Same means exactly one thing. Alike means close, but not always identical.

Word family and forms

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "alike".

• look alike
• think alike
• treat everyone alike
• young and old alike
• very much alike
• dress alike

Idioms and phrases

great minds think alike

Clever people often have the same idea.

"We both bought the same gift: great minds think alike."

Origin

Alike comes from Middle English alike, which joined older English forms such as Old English onlic with Old Norse alikr, a Scandinavian word. All of them are built on the word like, and together they gave English one word that means similar.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Alike is a plus like. The two things are like each other: a like.

Test yourself

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