LIKENESS

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing

Synonyms:

likeness; semblance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("likeness" is a kind of...):

icon; ikon; image; picture (a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "likeness"):

Identikit; Identikit picture (a likeness of a person's face constructed from descriptions given to police; uses a set of transparencies of various facial features that can be combined to build up a picture of the person sought)

portrait; portrayal (any likeness of a person, in any medium)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things

Example:

man created God in his own likeness

Synonyms:

alikeness; likeness; similitude

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("likeness" is a kind of...):

similarity (the quality of being similar)

Attribute:

alike; like; similar (having the same or similar characteristics)

dissimilar; unalike (not alike or similar)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "likeness"):

comparability; compare; comparison; equivalence (qualities that are comparable)

mirror image; reflection; reflexion (a likeness in which left and right are reversed)

naturalness (the likeness of a representation to the thing represented)

resemblance (similarity in appearance or external or superficial details)

spitting image (a perfect likeness or counterpart)

Antonym:

unlikeness (dissimilarity evidenced by an absence of likeness)

Derivation:

like (resembling or similar; having the same or some of the same characteristics; often used in combination)

like (having the same or similar characteristics)

like (conforming in every respect)

Credits

Context examples:

Some of the brain areas close to the visual cortex, which deciphers visual images, tracked how human-like the images were, by changing their activity the more human-like an artificial agent became – in a sense, creating a spectrum of ‘human-likeness’.

(Scientists identify possible source of the ‘Uncanny Valley’ in the brain, University of Cambridge)

He quickly came to know much of the ways of the man-animals, but familiarity did not breed contempt. The more he came to know them, the more they vindicated their superiority, the more they displayed their mysterious powers, the greater loomed their god-likeness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

They came: the master of the house was not at home, but the two sisters were together; and as it chanced that Mrs Croft fell to the share of Anne, while the Admiral sat by Mary, and made himself very agreeable by his good-humoured notice of her little boys, she was well able to watch for a likeness, and if it failed her in the features, to catch it in the voice, or in the turn of sentiment and expression.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But between us, I am convinced there never can be any likeness, except in being unmarried.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I sought in her countenance and features a likeness to Mr. Rochester, but found none: no trait, no turn of expression announced relationship.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I forget whether it was the Blue Bull, or the Blue Boar; but I know it was the Blue Something, and that its likeness was painted up on the back of the coach.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She approached and saw the likeness of Mr. Wickham, suspended, amongst several other miniatures, over the mantelpiece.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Softened into crayon sketches, they did better, for the likenesses were good, and Amy's hair, Jo's nose, Meg's mouth, and Laurie's eyes were pronounced 'wonderfully fine'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was an unconscious impulse, and farthest from her thoughts that her desire was to re-thumb the clay of him into a likeness of her father's image, which image she believed to be the finest in the world.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One part converted the human-likeness signal into a ‘human detection’ signal, with activity in this region over-emphasising the boundary between human and non-human stimuli – reacting most strongly to human agents and much less to artificial agents.