likeness

Everyday

1. Being alike or similar; how much one thing looks like another. tree →
2. A picture, drawing or statue that looks like a real person. tree →

In the lessons

In families: "There's a strong likeness between you and your mum." In art lessons: a portrait that is a good likeness looks like the person. Phrases: a strong likeness, a family likeness, a good likeness.

Examples

• There is a strong likeness between the twins. tree →
• The painting is a good likeness of the queen. tree →
• I can see the family likeness in your smile. tree →
• The sculptor made a likeness of the famous runner. tree →
• The police drew a likeness of the thief. tree →
• Is the drawing a good likeness? Not really! tree →
• It is not the same Pivi—but there is a kind of likeness. tree →

Note

Countable. From "like" + "-ness". Similar: resemblance, similarity. Do not confuse with "liking" (enjoying something).

In Jewish tradition

In Genesis, man is made in God's "likeness", and in Deuteronomy the likeness of any creature must not be made as an idol.

Interpretation. Tradition reads "in the likeness of God" as meaning each person has a special worth, with a mind and a conscience, and not that God has a body. The ban on making likenesses guards against worshiping images.

Examples

• In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; (Torah GEN.5.1, JPS 1917) tree →
• the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven, (Torah DEU.4.17, JPS 1917) tree →
• lest ye deal corruptly, and make you a graven image, even the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, (Torah DEU.4.16, JPS 1917) tree →
• Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? (Prophets ISA.40.18, JPS 1917) tree →
• And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. (Prophets EZK.1.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• And out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. (Prophets EZK.1.5, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable. From "like" + "-ness". Similar: resemblance, similarity. Do not confuse with "liking" (enjoying something).

Early Modern English

Meaning

Being like something, or a picture or image of someone. tree →

Then and now

Today a likeness is a resemblance or a portrait. In the first sentence "likeness" means the form or image in which God made man, which is an old sense.

Examples

• In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; (Torah GEN.5.1, JPS 1917) tree →
• That was my idea, and there stands his likeness." (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen) tree →
• The Twenty-fourth Path is the Imaginative Intelligence, and it is so called because it gives a likeness to all the similitudes, which are created in like manner similar to its harmonious elegancies. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1887) tree →

Note

Today: resemblance; image.