alike

1. 1
   adjective

   Showing resemblance or similarity; the same or nearly the same, with little or no difference.

   The sisters are remarkably alike in both temperament and taste.

   No two snowflakes are exactly alike under a microscope.

   Similarsimilar, identical

   Oppositedifferent, dissimilar, unlike

   Note

   The adjective descends from Old English onlīċ, worn down through Middle English alich and alyke; German ähnlich is its relative. It stands after the verb (the twins look alike, the sisters are alike) rather than before a noun, where similar or like does the work. In O. S. Nock's shore, which was "alike colourless," the word is really the "equally" adverb.

2. 2
   adverb

   In the same manner, form, or degree; equally.

   The committee promised to treat every applicant alike, regardless of background.

   Despite growing up on different continents, the brothers think alike on most questions.

   Similarequally, similarly, identically

   Oppositedifferently

   Note

   Older prose often puts this adverb in front of a pair, where modern English would say both. Walter Scott's knight in The Abbot (1820) disclaims "alike interest and controul," and Emerson Hough (1910) calls into query "alike the nature of their errand and their own relations." Today the word more often follows its verb, as in think alike or treat everyone alike, or moves to the end of a list, as in the after-the-list use.

3. 3
   adverb

   Placed after a list of people or things to indicate that something applies equally to every one of them.

   The tax changes worried small businesses and large corporations alike.

   Critics and casual listeners alike praised the band's new album.

   Note

   Here the word comes at the end of a list and gathers it up: employees and customers alike, critics and casual listeners alike. The items are usually contrasting groups, and the effect is to stress that none is left out. It suits formal and journalistic prose, and it can close a prepositional phrase as easily as a subject, as in Jamelle Bouie's "in small towns and big cities alike."

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