resemblance
Americannoun
-
resemblances
plural
-
the state or fact of resembling; similarity.
- Antonyms:
- difference
-
a degree, kind, or point of likeness.
- Synonyms:
- similitude, analogy
-
a likeness, appearance, or semblance of something.
- Synonyms:
- image
noun
-
the state or quality of resembling; likeness or similarity in nature, appearance, etc
-
the degree or extent to which or the respect in which a likeness exists
-
something resembling something else; semblance; likeness
Synonym Usage
Resemblance, similarity imply that there is a likeness between two or more people or things. Resemblance indicates primarily a likeness in appearance, either a striking one or one which merely serves as a reminder to the beholder: The boy has a strong resemblance to his father. Similarity may imply a surface likeness, but usually suggests also a likeness in other characteristics: There is a similarity in their tastes and behavior.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of resemblance
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, equivalent to resembl(er) “to resemble” resemble + -ance -ance
Explanation
A resemblance is a similarity in appearance. Children usually have a strong resemblance to their biological parents. When you talk about resemblances, you're talking about people or things that look alike in some way. Relatives often have resemblances because they share the same genes. Perhaps you have a resemblance to a famous person. Many people think there's a resemblance between dogs and their owners. If someone draws a picture of you, but it has no resemblance to what you really look like, they did a bad job.
Vocabulary lists containing resemblance
Kindred
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"Phaethon"
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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.
See Examples For:
The phenomenon, known as "gravitational reconnection," bears an unexpected resemblance to a process responsible for some of the Sun's most powerful eruptions.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026
Occasionally, cinematographer Ben Davis even lines up those centuries-old face carvings behind Malkovich to note their resemblance to his imposing profile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
But MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert sees something more troubling: that the Nasdaq’s recent performance is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to the dot-com era.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
Mbappe is also sometimes affectionately referred to as "Guigui", meaning "turtle" in Chinese, for his resemblance to a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
The title of the draft book was On Motion, but the draft bears little resemblance to the book Galileo published under the same title some years later.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Seyfried and Sweeney were chosen to play the two female leads in The Housemaid because of their physical resemblances, but Seyfried says the similarities do not end there.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2025
The bloggers and columnists, clickbait news sites, and social media influencers promise forensic detail: the way clothes move, the anatomy of the pregnant body, the tone of her denials, the baby’s resemblances.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025
ME/CFS bears striking resemblances to long COVID, with symptoms such as immune system dysregulation, fatigue and cognitive dysfunction.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 14, 2023
Banks, now 82, claims that there are “many unsettling parallels and resemblances between my own story and Harley Mann’s.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2022
Chacko marveled at how someone so small and undefined, so vague in her resemblances, could so completely command the attention, the love, the sanity, of a grown man.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
