different between likeness vs equal

English

Etymology

From Middle English liknesse, from Old English l?cness, ?el?cnes (“the quality of being like or equal; likeness; image; copy; pattern; example; parable”), from Proto-West Germanic *gal?kanass? (“likeness”), equivalent to like +? -ness. Cognate with West Frisian likenis (“likeness”), Dutch gelijkenis (“similarity; likeness; parable”), German Low German Glieknis (“form; semblance; likeness; parable”), German Gleichnis (“form; semblance; image; likeness; parable; simile”). The verb is derived from the noun. Compare also Old Norse líkneskja (“figure, image, appearance, likeness”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?la?kn?s/
• Hyphenation: like?ness

Noun

likeness (plural likenesses)

1. The state or quality of being like or alike
   • 1822, Connop Thirlwall translating Ludwig Tieck, The Pictures

     Erich thought he observed a likeness between the stranger and a relative of Walther; this led them into the chapter of likenesses, and the strange way in which certain forms repeat themselves in families, often most distinctly in the most remote ramifications.

   Synonyms: similitude, resemblance, similarity

2. Appearance or form; guise.

   A foe in the likeness of a friend

   • Genesis, I, 26

     And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

3. That which closely resembles; a portrait.

   How he looked, the likenesses of him which still remain enable us to imagine.

Synonyms

• similarity

Derived terms

• mislikeness

Related terms

• like

Translations

Verb

likeness (third-person singular simple present likenesses, present participle likenessing, simple past and past participle likenessed)

1. (archaic, transitive) To depict.
   • 1857, April 25, Alfred Lord Tennyson, letter to Reginald Southey, in Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon Jr. (editors), The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Volume II: 1851-1870, Belknap Press (1987), ?ISBN, page 171:

     I have this morning received the photographs of my two boys. The eldest is very well likenessed: the other, perhaps, not so well.

   • 1868, November, advertisement, in Arthur's Home Magazine, Volume XXXII, Number 21, after page 320:

     Every member of the family [of General Grant] is as faithfully likenessed as the photographs, which were given to the artist from the hands of the General himself, have power to express.

See also

• copy
• portrait
• analogy
• alikeness

Anagrams

• eelskins

English

Alternative forms

• æqual (archaic), æquall (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin aequ?lis, of unknown origin. Doublet of egal.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?k'w?l, IPA^(key): /?i?kw?l/
• Rhymes: -i?kw?l

Adjective

equal (not generally comparable, comparative more equal, superlative most equal)

1. (not comparable) The same in all respects.
   • 1705, George Cheyne, The Philosophical Principles of Religion Natural and Revealed

     They who are not disposed to receive them may let them alone or reject them; it is equal to me.

2. (mathematics, not comparable) Exactly identical, having the same value.
3. (obsolete) Fair, impartial.
   • Are not my ways equal?
4. (comparable) Adequate; sufficiently capable or qualified.
   • 1881, Jane Austen, Emma, page 311

     her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged.

   • much less is it in my power to make my commendations equal to your merits.

   • 1842, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Threnody

     […] whose voice an equal messenger / Conveyed thy meaning mild.

5. (obsolete) Not variable; equable; uniform; even.

   • an equal temper

6. (music) Intended for voices of one kind only, either all male or all female; not mixed.

Usage notes

• In mathematics, this adjective can be used in phrases like "A and B are equal", "A is equal to B", and, less commonly, "A is equal with B".
• The most common comparative use is the ironic expression more equal.

Synonyms

• (the same in all respects): identical
• (the same in all relevant respects): equivalent
• (unvarying): even, fair, uniform, unvarying

Translations

Verb

equal (third-person singular simple present equals, present participle (Commonwealth) equalling or (US) equaling, simple past and past participle (Commonwealth) equalled or (US) equaled)

1. (mathematics, copulative) To be equal to, to have the same value as; to correspond to.

2. (transitive) To make equivalent to; to cause to match.

3. (informal) To have as its consequence.

Synonyms

• (to be equal to): be, is
• (informal, have as its consequence): entail, imply, lead to, mean, result in, spell

Translations

Noun

equal (plural equals)

1. A person or thing of equal status to others.

   • Those who were once his equals envy and defame him.
2. (obsolete) State of being equal; equality.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (person or thing of equal status to others): peer

Derived terms

Related terms

• equality

Translations

Anagrams

• Quale, quale, queal