Standard Lemma guide

similarity

noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ə.ti/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌsɪm.əˈlæɹ.ə.ti/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /ˌsɪm.əˈlæɹ.ə.ti/
  • Canada, General-American: [ˌsɪm.əˈlæɹ.ə.ɾi]
  • Canada, General-American: /ˌsɪm.əˈlɛɹ.ə.ti/
  • Canada, General-American: [ˌsɪm.əˈlɛɹ.ə.ɾi]
  • Canada, General-American: /ˌsɪm.əˈlɛɹ.ti/
  • Canada, General-American: [ˌsɪm.əˈlɛɹ.ɾi]
  • New Mexico Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ˌsɪm.əˈlæɹ.ə.ti/
  • Australian: [ˌsɪm.əˈlæɹ.ə.ɾi]
  • New-Zealand: /ˌsəm.əˈlɛɹ.ə.ti/
  • New-Zealand: [ˌsəm.əˈlɛɹ.ə.ɾi]
  • rhymes with -æɹɪti
  • CMU ARPABET: S IH2 M AH0 L EH1 R AH0 T IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Closeness of appearance to something else.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The relation of sharing properties.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: human-sciences, philosophy, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A transformation (of a Euclidean space) that preserves angles and the ratios of distances

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geometry, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

The property of two matrices being similar.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: linear-algebra, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

the quality of being similar

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: dissimilarity

Broader terms: sameness

Narrower terms: approximation, homogeny, homology, homomorphism, homomorphy, isomorphism, isomorphy, likeness, alikeness, similitude, parallelism, correspondence, uniformity, uniformness, approach, sort, analogue, analog, parallel

6

noun

Meaning 6

a Gestalt principle of organization holding that (other things being equal) parts of a stimulus field that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as belonging together as a unit

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: law of similarity

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: Gestalt law of organization, Gestalt principle of organization

History

Etymology

From French similarité. Morphologically similar + -ity

Across languages

Translations

105 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: ngjashmëri — closeness of appearance
  • Arabic: تَشَابُه (tašābuh) — closeness of appearance
  • Arabic: شَبَه (šabah) — closeness of appearance
  • Armenian: նմանություն (nmanutʻyun) — closeness of appearance
  • Asturian: asemeyanza — closeness of appearance
  • Asturian: semeyanza — closeness of appearance
  • Azerbaijani: bənzərlik — closeness of appearance
  • Azerbaijani: oxşarlıq — closeness of appearance
  • Belarusian: падабе́нства (padabjénstva) — closeness of appearance
  • Belarusian: падо́бнасць (padóbnascʹ) — closeness of appearance
  • Bulgarian: схо́дство (shódstvo) — closeness of appearance
  • Bulgarian: подо́бие (podóbie) — closeness of appearance
  • Bulgarian: при́лика (prílika) — closeness of appearance
  • Catalan: semblança — closeness of appearance
  • Catalan: similitud — closeness of appearance
  • Chinese Mandarin: 相似 (xiāngsì) — closeness of appearance
  • Chinese Mandarin: 類似 /类似 (lèisì) — closeness of appearance
  • Crimean Tatar: oşama — closeness of appearance
  • Crimean Tatar: oşav — closeness of appearance
  • Crimean Tatar: beñzme — closeness of appearance
  • Crimean Tatar: beñzev — closeness of appearance
  • Czech: podobnost — closeness of appearance
  • Danish: lighed — closeness of appearance
  • Dutch: gelijkenis — closeness of appearance
  • Egyptian: mi-t (mjt) — closeness of appearance
  • Esperanto: simileco — closeness of appearance
  • Estonian: sarnasus — closeness of appearance
  • Estonian: samalaadsus — closeness of appearance
  • Finnish: samankaltaisuus — closeness of appearance
  • Finnish: yhtäläisyys — closeness of appearance
  • French: similarité — closeness of appearance
  • French: similitude — closeness of appearance
  • West-Frisian: likenis — closeness of appearance
  • Friulian: someance — closeness of appearance
  • Galician: semellanza — closeness of appearance
  • Galician: similitude — closeness of appearance
  • Georgian: მსგავსება (msgavseba) — closeness of appearance
  • German: Ähnlichkeit — closeness of appearance
  • Greek: ομοιότητα (omoiótita) — closeness of appearance
  • Ancient Greek: ὁμοιότης (homoiótēs) — closeness of appearance
  • Hebrew: דִּמְיוֹן (dimyón) — closeness of appearance
  • Hindi: समानता (samāntā) — closeness of appearance
  • Hindi: समरूपता (samrūptā) — closeness of appearance
  • Hungarian: hasonlóság — closeness of appearance
  • Ilocano: apiring — closeness of appearance
  • Ilocano: ariring — closeness of appearance
  • Italian: similarità — closeness of appearance
  • Italian: somiglianza — closeness of appearance
  • Japanese: 類似 (ruiji) — closeness of appearance
  • Japanese: 類似性 (ruijisei) — closeness of appearance
  • Japanese: 相似 (sōji) — closeness of appearance
  • Kazakh: ұқсастық (ūqsastyq) — closeness of appearance
  • Kazakh: ұқсастылық (ūqsastylyq) — closeness of appearance
  • Kazakh: жанасым (janasym) — closeness of appearance
  • Korean: 유사 (yusa) — closeness of appearance
  • Korean: 유사성 (yusaseong) — closeness of appearance
  • Korean: 닮음 (dalmeum) — closeness of appearance
  • Korean: 상사 (sangsa) — closeness of appearance
  • Kyrgyz: окшоштук (okşoştuk) — closeness of appearance
  • Latin: similitūdō — closeness of appearance
  • Latvian: līdzība — closeness of appearance
  • Lithuanian: panašumas — closeness of appearance
  • Macedonian: сличност (sličnost) — closeness of appearance
  • Malayalam: സാമ്യം (sāmyaṁ) — closeness of appearance
  • Malayalam: സാദൃശ്യം (sādr̥śyaṁ) — closeness of appearance
  • Norwegian Bokmål: likhet — closeness of appearance
  • Persian: تشابه (tašâboh) — closeness of appearance
  • Persian: شباهت (šabâhat) — closeness of appearance
  • Plautdietsch: Änlichkjeit — closeness of appearance
  • Polish: podobieństwo — closeness of appearance
  • Portuguese: semelhança — closeness of appearance
  • Portuguese: similaridade — closeness of appearance
  • Romanian: similaritate — closeness of appearance
  • Russian: схо́дство (sxódstvo) — closeness of appearance
  • Russian: подо́бие (podóbije) — closeness of appearance
  • Russian: схо́жесть (sxóžestʹ) — closeness of appearance
  • Scottish Gaelic: coltas — closeness of appearance
  • Serbo-Croatian: сли̏чно̄ст — closeness of appearance
  • Serbo-Croatian: slȉčnōst — closeness of appearance
  • Slovak: podobnosť — closeness of appearance
  • Slovene: podobnost — closeness of appearance
  • Spanish: semejanza — closeness of appearance
  • Spanish: similaridad — closeness of appearance
  • Swedish: likhet — closeness of appearance
  • Swedish: similaritet — closeness of appearance
  • Tagalog: pagkakahawig — closeness of appearance
  • Tagalog: wangis — closeness of appearance
  • Tajik: шабоҳат (šabohat) — closeness of appearance
  • Tajik: монандӣ (monandi) — closeness of appearance
  • Telugu: సారూప్యత (sārūpyata) — closeness of appearance
  • Telugu: ఒకే పోలిక (okē pōlika) — closeness of appearance
  • Thai: ความคล้าย — closeness of appearance
  • Thai: ความเหมือน — closeness of appearance
  • Turkish: benzerlik — closeness of appearance
  • Ukrainian: схо́жість (sxóžistʹ) — closeness of appearance
  • Ukrainian: поді́бність (podíbnistʹ) — closeness of appearance
  • Urdu: شباہت (śabāhat) — closeness of appearance
  • Urdu: مشابہت (muśābahat) — closeness of appearance
  • Uyghur: ئوخشاشلىق (oxshashliq) — closeness of appearance
  • Uzbek: oʻxshashlik — closeness of appearance
  • Venetan: somejansa — closeness of appearance
  • Vietnamese: sự giống nhau — closeness of appearance
  • Vietnamese: sự tương tự — closeness of appearance
  • Vietnamese: sự đồng dạng — closeness of appearance
  • Yiddish: ענלעכקייט (enlekhkeyt) — closeness of appearance
Real reading context

similarity in complete knowledge articles