like

LYK/laɪ̯k/

33 meanings of like

1
preposition
Similar to, resembling, or reminiscent of.
The house is like a museum inside.
People like that never say thank you.
UsageUse look like before a noun: looks like her mother. Before an adjective, drop like: looks happy (not ~~incorrect: looks like happy~~).
Oppositeunlike
Note
Placed after a noun it narrows the reference, so a town like ours means a town of our kind.
2
enjoyverbtransitive
To enjoy, take pleasure in or be in favor of something, including doing something regularly.
Do you like the new design?
We liked the house the moment we saw it.
UsageFollowed by a noun, -ing or to: I like skiing, I like to ski. Say I like it very much (not ~~incorrect: I very like it~~).
Similarenjoy, love, fancy, appreciate, relish
Oppositedislike, hate, detest
Note
The everyday verb of pleasure comes from Old English līcian, which meant both "to like" and "to please". In the old "please" use, the thing that pleased was the subject; in this meaning the person is the subject.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The pleasure verb like descends from Old English līcian. en.wiktionary.org
Old English līcian can be translated as both to like and to please. en.wiktionary.org
In the archaic please sense, the grammatical subject and object have the reverse roles from those in the enjoy sense. en.wiktionary.org
3
such aspreposition
Such as, introducing an example of the kind meant.
Fruits like apples and pears keep well.
She plays team sports like soccer and basketball every weekend.
UsageEveryday for giving examples: sports like soccer. Formal writing often prefers such as.
Similarincluding
Note
The noun that follows is a member of the group, not a lookalike: cities like Paris includes Paris. Someone like you can go either way, meaning a person of your kind or you yourself.
4
wantverbtransitive or intransitive
To want or wish, used with would and in a few other phrases.
I'd like to see the manager, please.
You can sit anywhere you like, since the seats aren't assigned.
UsageMostly would like, a polite want: I'd like to see the manager, Would you like some tea? Also if you like.
Similarwant, wish
Note
Wanting needs a frame for this meaning to appear: would like, if you like, whenever you like. In the negative the verb turns to reluctance: I don't like to ask her for money means hesitating to do it, not disliking the act.
5
conjunctioncolloquial
Introducing a supposed comparison, in the sense 'as if', or an example, in the sense 'such as'.
It felt like the whole town had turned out.
Let's do something fun, like go to the beach.
UsageAfter look, seem, feel or sound: it looks like you've finished. Formal writing prefers as if or as though.
Note
After verbs of seeming, the word introduces a whole clause: it looks like you've finished, it felt like nobody was listening. It can also introduce an example that is an action rather than a thing, with a bare verb following: something cheap like rent a film.
6
in the manner ofpreposition
In the manner of, or the way someone or something does it.
Stop behaving like a child.
The engine purred like a cat.
UsageFollowed by a noun or pronoun: sings like an angel. Before a whole clause, formal writing uses as.
Note
Manner is what this preposition compares, not looks: he eats like a horse is about how he eats. A noun or pronoun follows it. When a whole clause follows instead, as in sings like she did at twenty, the word has become the colloquial conjunction, where formal writing would use as.
7
preposition
Used after look or seem to point to what seems to be coming.
It looks like a long night for the rescue teams.
It looks like snow before morning.
UsageMostly it looks like plus a noun, to say what is coming: it looks like rain.
Note
The word turns appearance into forecast: it looks like a cold winter reads the signs and predicts what is coming. A noun follows, after look or seem; when a full clause follows instead, as in it looks like it will rain, the word is working as the "as if" conjunction.
8
conjunctioncolloquial
As, or in the way that.
She still sings like she did at twenty.
Stir it like the recipe says.
UsageCommon in speech: do it like I showed you. In formal writing, as is the safer choice: as the recipe says.
Similaras
Note
Followed by a full clause, the word works as a conjunction meaning as: tastes good like a cigarette should, do unto others like you'd have them do unto you. With a noun alone it is the preposition of manner, which suits any register: act like a grown-up.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The cigarette example reproduces wording from the Winston advertising slogan. en.wikipedia.org
Bob Dylan's official lyrics repeat “like you'd have them”. An ellipsis should mark the omitted repetition. bobdylan.com
9
describe (question)preposition
Used in the question what is someone or something like, to ask for a description or an opinion.
What was the hotel like?
So what's your new boss like, then?
UsageWhat's the weather like? asks for a description (not ~~incorrect: how's the weather like~~). What does he like? asks about tastes.
Note
The question what's he like? separates the preposition from its object what, and the answer supplies a description. It asks for a description or a verdict rather than a comparison, so what's the weather like? wants to hear hot, wet or cold.
10
adjective
Similar, or of the same kind.
Like causes produce like effects.
The two sisters have like tastes in music, books and food.
Similarsimilar, comparable, corresponding, analogous
Oppositedifferent, dissimilar
Note
The adjective is a separate word from the verb, descending from Old English ġelīċ and sharing its root with alike. It sits comfortably before a noun (like minds, in most like cases) and also after as: as like as two coins from one mint. Carlyle could still write nothing liker in 1843, though the comparison is now made with more like and most like.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
The adjective and the verb descend from distinct Old English words. en.wiktionary.org
The adjective descends from Old English ġelīċ. en.wiktionary.org
Like and alike share an etymological root. en.wiktionary.org
Thomas Carlyle wrote “Nothing liker” in Past and Present. gutenberg.org
Past and Present was first published in 1843. searcharchives.bl.uk
11
quotingparticlecolloquial
Used before an approximate quotation, a paraphrase, or a reaction.
My dad tasted the soup and was like, who added all this salt?
She saw the bill and was like, no way.
UsageFollowed directly by the words or reaction after be (I was like, "Wait!"), without *that*.
Note
The quotative turns reporting into performance: I was like, why did you do that? It pairs with was, is and are, and what follows need not be the exact words, or words at all, since went like bang reports a sound. Lily Allen's 2006 song uses it, a fair guide to its register: lively, spoken, and out of place in formal reports.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Lily Allen's 2006 song "Knock 'Em Out" uses quotative like. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

12
have a crushverbtransitive
To find someone attractive, enjoy their company or have mild romantic feelings for them.
Everyone could tell she liked him.
If you like her that much, you should just ask her out to dinner.
UsageOften really like someone, which is milder than love; like someone as a friend rules romance out.
Similarlove, fancy
Oppositedislike, hate
Note
Aimed at a person, the feeling is kept deliberately small. I really like Tom stops short of love, which makes the verb a safe way to admit an attraction without overstating it; British speakers can say fancy instead. Liking someone romantically and liking their company look the same out of context, so really, and the situation, do the signaling.
13
click to approveverbtransitive
On social media, to mark a post with approval by clicking a button, whether or not one actually approves of it.
Thousands of people liked the video within an hour.
You can like a comment without replying to it.
UsageYou like a post, photo or video; the reverse is unlike. Common in like and subscribe.
Oppositeunlike, dislike
Note
Social media turned the verb into a button press. You like a post, a photo or a video, and the act records approval whether or not any feeling stands behind it; people often like a friend's post just to be polite. Its reversal is unlike, and the film Don't Look Up (2021) gives a character the online creator's sign-off: don't forget to like and subscribe.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Don't Look Up was released in 2021. netflix.com
A character, Jason Orlean, says “Don't forget to like and subscribe” in the film. en.wikiquote.org
14
click to approvenouncountable
On the Internet, a single vote of approval or enjoyment registered on a post.
She checks her phone every few minutes to see how many likes the photo has.
A single like from the right account can change a career.
UsageMost often plural: a post gets likes, a thousand likes.
Oppositedislike
Note
The noun of the button counts approval one click at a time, so it usually appears in the plural: shares, likes and follows. Writers describe likes as a currency, the measure an influencer economy runs on, and a singer can sneer at people who dress for the likes. Keep it apart from likes and dislikes, which are tastes rather than tallies.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Writers have described likes as currency supporting an influencer economy. en.wiktionary.org
A singer mocks people who dress for likes: Princess Nokia does so in “Balenciaga”. en.wiktionary.org
15
mid fillerparticlecolloquial
Used informally in the middle of a sentence as a filler, to show that what follows is approximate or uncertain, or to draw attention to the next word or turn in a story.
He's, like, six feet tall, maybe more.
The meeting lasted, like, three hours.
UsageIt often appears between commas: it lasted, like, three hours. For approximate numbers in formal writing, use about.
Note
The hedge marks a number or a description as rough: there were, like, twenty of them. Commas around it keep it from being read as the preposition, though she's like brand new shows it can run on without them. Sally Brown's like, wow in a 1972 Peanuts strip shows the casual register was already familiar then.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Sally Brown says “Like, wow!” in a Peanuts strip published in 1972, specifically on 1 December. gocomics.com
16
nouncountable or uncountable
Someone or something similar to the one named; a counterpart or kind.
Nobody had seen the likes of it before.
Like attracts like, she explained.
UsageFixed phrases: and the like, the likes of, compare like with like, never see his like again.
Similarequal, match, counterpart
Note
Resemblance turned into a noun gives English a cluster of fixed phrases: and the like at the end of a list, the likes of which, compare like with like, like attracts like. It can also mean a person's equal, as in Churchill's 1935 tribute to T. E. Lawrence: we shall never see his like again.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Churchill used the words “we shall never see his like again” in a tribute to T. E. Lawrence. pbs.org
The Churchill tribute is dated 1935. en.wiktionary.org
17
preferencenouncountableplural
A thing one prefers; a favorite, chiefly in the plural.
The form asks for your likes and dislikes.
His likes were simple: strong coffee, long walks, and a good mystery novel.
Similarfavorite, preference
Oppositedislike
18
preposition
Approximately or roughly, used after 'something'.
The repairs will cost something like two thousand.
We walked something like ten miles.
UsageMostly in something like: something like ten miles. Without something, it is casual speech.
Note
Approximation grows naturally out of resemblance: a price that is something like ten dollars resembles ten dollars without being exactly it. The full phrase something like keeps the meaning neutral enough for any register. Drop the something and the colloquial hedge of the approximating particle takes over: there were, like, twenty.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
The approximation sense is semantically connected with resemblance. linguistics.osu.edu
19
preposition
Typical of or in character for someone.
That's just like you, blaming the weather.
It's so like him to send flowers.
UsageMostly just like someone or (not) like someone to do something: it's not like her to be late.
Oppositeunlike
20
accept (computer)verbcolloquialtransitive
Of a computer or system, to accept an input, chiefly in the negative.
The form won't like an address that long.
The server bounced my email with an error saying it didn't like the recipient's address.
Similaraccept
Oppositereject
Note
Machines are given tastes here, chiefly to report a refusal: the checkout doesn't like my card means it rejects the card. The phrasing is informal, and it has made its way into software itself, since remote host does not like recipient is a mail server's error message. Compare the prone-to meaning, where things like to do something rather than refuse it.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Mail-server software uses 'does not like recipient' to report rejection. greenarrowemail.com
21
tend toverbcolloquialtransitive
Of a thing, to be prone or tend to do something, as if by its own will.
My car likes to stall at traffic lights.
Old printers like to jam when you're in a hurry.
UsageLike to plus a verb, often in complaints about things: this door likes to stick.
Similartend
Note
Objects get a will of their own in this informal personification. The cheese wants nothing, yet its habit of sticking to the pan is described as a preference, in the same shape as the habitual sense (she likes to keep fit). It takes a to-infinitive and suits complaints about things that misbehave.
22
end fillerparticledialectalGeordieIrelandScotlandTeesside
A filler added after a statement to soften it or round it off.
It's not far, like, just over the bridge.
We were only having a laugh, like.
Note
Placed at the end, after the clause is finished, this filler is a mark of speech in Scotland and Ireland, on Tyneside and Teesside, and in Liverpool. He was so angry, like rounds off the statement rather than hedging anything inside it. Many other colloquial uses come before what they mark; final like is associated with these regions, though it also occurs elsewhere.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The delayed filler is associated with Scotland, Ireland, Tyneside, Teesside and Liverpool. en.wiktionary.org
Final like occurs in several varieties outside the listed regions, so its position alone cannot reliably identify a speaker's region. ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de
23
adjectivearchaicScotlandSouthern US
Likely or inclined to do or be something; used with to.
It was like to be a hard winter.
She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Note
Probability in one syllable belongs to older English and to speakers in Scotland and the Southern US. It works in two frames: it is like that the world will scoff, and like to plus a verb, as in Swift's 1726 wind that was like to overblow. Outside those regions, likely is the safe choice, and the short form will read as deliberately archaic.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Like meaning likely or probable is an older usage associated with Scotland and the Southern US. en.wiktionary.org
The probable sense permits both a following clause and like to followed by a verb. en.wiktionary.org
The Swift example comes from a work first published in 1726. en.wikipedia.org
In Gulliver's Travels, the wind, rather than the ship, is likely to blow very hard. The wording is 'Finding it was like to overblow'. en.wiktionary.org
24
odds areparticle
Likely or probably, only in the set phrases like enough and like as not.
Like as not the bridge is out after that rain.
He'll be late, like enough.
Note
Probability survives here in two fixed phrases, like enough and like as not, both meaning probably. In Mark Twain's Captain Stormfield (1907-08), Sandy McWilliams says you'll try it, some day, like enough. The phrases sound homely and a little old, and they are the same word as the "probable" adjective put to adverbial work.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
Like enough and like as not express probability. en.wiktionary.org
Mark Twain wrote the Stormfield story. gutenberg.org
The story first appeared in December 1907 and January 1908; 1909 is the first book edition's year. en.wikipedia.org
Sandy McWilliams says this to Captain Stormfield. The source punctuates the words 'You'll try it, some day, like enough'. en.wikisource.org
The probability adverb is the same word as the probability adjective used adverbially. en.wiktionary.org
25
nearly didverbdialectalintransitive
To be likely, especially in the past followed by to have, meaning came near to.
The roof liked to have come off in the gale.
She like to died when she saw the bill.
Note
This verb has its own history, built from the adverb and the adjective rather than from the verb of pleasure, and it is chiefly dialectal. Its signature is the past with a perfect infinitive, liked to have done, meaning came close to: Horace Walpole writes of a man who got his death, as he liked to have done two years ago. In standard English, say nearly or almost.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
This verb derives from the adverb and adjective like, separately from the verb expressing pleasure. en.wiktionary.org
Liked followed by a perfect infinitive can mean came close to doing something. en.wiktionary.org
Walpole wrote “two years ago”, not “two years before”. en.wiktionary.org
26
just asadverbarchaic
In a similar manner, chiefly followed by as.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
Note
The old adverb survives chiefly in the frame like as … so …, the comparison the 1611 Bible uses for a father's pity. Today it is archaic or rare, and a modern writer would say just as. Like as can still lend a sentence a scriptural cadence, but in plain prose it sounds borrowed from scripture.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The King James Bible was first published in 1611. archive.org
The Bible uses like as … so … in a comparison involving a father's pity. freely-given.org
27
noun
In golf, the stroke that makes one's number of strokes equal to the opponent's: to play the like.
28
verbarchaic
Of a thing, to be pleasing to someone, as in it likes me well.
His countenance likes me not.
1608, William Shakespeare, King Lear
29
verbobsolete
To take enjoyment in something, usually followed by of, by, or with.
And therefore it is the best way, if you like of it, to examine these taken from experiments touching the Earth, and then proceed to those of the other kind.
1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Systems of the World
30
verbarchaic
To come close to doing or suffering something, or to only just escape it, as in I liked to have died.
He probably got his death, as he liked to have done two years ago, by viewing the troops for the expedition from the wall of Kensington Garden.
1760, Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole: Fourth Earl of Oxford
31
verbobsolete
To look or appear to be in a certain state.
You like well, and bear your years very well.
c. 1598, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”
32
verbobsolete
To point out how one thing resembles another.
And like me to the peasant boys of France.
1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI
33
adverbobsolete
Probably, as in the old phrase 'like enough'.
DON PEDRO. May be she doth but counterfeit. CLAUDIO. Faith, like enough.
1598, William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 2, 4, 12–14, 17, 20–21

Old English līcian meant "to please" as well as "to like", and it became Middle English liken. Through Proto-Germanic it reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European root *leyg- for an image or likeness. Dutch lijken ("to seem"), German gleichen ("to resemble") and Norwegian like ("to like") are related. The noun was formed from this verb.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Old English līcian meant both "to please" and "to like". en.wiktionary.org
Middle English liken descended from Old English līcian. en.wiktionary.org
The verb traces through Proto-Germanic to Proto-Indo-European *leyg-, meaning image or likeness. en.wiktionary.org
Dutch lijken means "to seem" and is related to English like. en.wiktionary.org
German gleichen means "to resemble" and is related to English like. en.wiktionary.org
Norwegian like means "to like" and is related to English like. en.wiktionary.org
The noun like expressing preference was derived from the verb. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 1, 3, 5–11, 15–16, 18–19, 22–24, 26

The adjective comes from Middle English "lik, lich, like," a shortening of Old English "ġelīċ," influenced by Old Norse "líkr"; both from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz ("like, similar, same"). It is related to "alike" and cognate with German "gleich" ("equal, like") and Icelandic "líkur" ("alike, similar"). The adverb, conjunction, and preposition all developed from this same family through Old English "ġelīċe" and Old Norse "líka."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts

The adjective comes through Middle English lik, lich and like, shortened from Old English ġelīċ and influenced by Old Norse líkr. en.wiktionary.org
Old English ġelīċ descends from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz. en.wiktionary.org
Old Norse líkr also descends from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-Germanic *galīkaz meant like, similar or same. en.wiktionary.org
Like and alike are etymologically related. en.wiktionary.org
German gleich is a cognate meaning equal or like. en.wiktionary.org
Icelandic líkur is a cognate meaning alike or similar. en.wiktionary.org
The adverb, conjunction and preposition share this ancestry through Old English ġelīċe and Old Norse líka; the preposition also developed from the adjective. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 25

This form comes from "like" used as an adverb and as an adjective.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

This form derives from the adverb and adjective like. en.wiktionary.org