dissimilar
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- dissimilarly adverb
Etymology
Origin of dissimilar
Explanation
If your sister has dark skin and dark hair, and you have fair skin and fair hair, people might say that your looks are dissimilar or not alike. Inside of dissimilar you find similar which means alike. By now, you've probably figured out that dis at the beginning of a word tells you the word means the opposite of whatever comes after. That rule holds here. Dissimilar is the opposite of similar. You've probably heard that you should not use double negatives. Well with dissimilar, it's okay to say something like, "Art is not dissimilar to music in that it is a creative activity. Here, "not dissimilar" means similar.
Vocabulary lists containing dissimilar
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Power Prefix: Dis-
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"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 10
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Although we do not have quite as many white Easters as white Christmases, the chances are not too dissimilar.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026
The chapel’s four dissimilar facades—essentially interconnected white surfaces, ornamented and perforated with markedly different patterns of windows and doorways—are topped with a gray, curvaceous concrete roof.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
The feeling isn’t dissimilar to trying to learn a new language, or even one that you were once semi-proficient in, that you haven’t studied with care in some time.
From Salon • Jan. 18, 2026
The scientific study produced an unexpected discovery which the team describe as "totally dissimilar to anything else we've uncovered".
From BBC • Nov. 27, 2025
Although their experimental strategies were superficially dissimilar, both were studying gene regulation.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
