resemble
See also: resemblé
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English resemblen, from Anglo-Norman resembler, ressembler, from re- + sembler (“to seem”). By surface analysis, re- + semble.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈzɛmbəl/, [ɹɪˈzɛmbl̩]
- (Australia) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈzembəl/, [ɹɪˈzembl̩]
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ɹəˈzembəl/, [ɹəˈzembl̩]
- Hyphenation: re‧sem‧ble
Verb
[edit]resemble (third-person singular simple present resembles, present participle resembling, simple past and past participle resembled)
- (transitive) To be like or similar to (something); to represent as similar.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.
- 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230b:
- But what you've just described does resemble a person of that kind.
- 2026 August 12, “Newly discovered "black hole star" could solve mystery of strange red dots spotted in the early universe”, in CBS News[1], archived from the original on 12 August 2026:
- Using modeling simulations, they determined the most likely scenario was that the object is powered by a central black hole surrounded by a cocoon of gas that makes it resemble a star.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:resemble.
- (transitive, now rare, archaic) To compare; to regard as similar, to liken.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- And th'other all yclad in garments light, / Discolour'd like to womanish disguise, / He did resemble to his Ladie bright [...].
- (obsolete, transitive) To counterfeit; to imitate.
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
- They can so well resemble mans speech.
- (obsolete, transitive) To cause to imitate or be like; to make similar.
- c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:
- And ſince we all haue ſuckt one wholſome aire,
And with the ſame proportion of Elements,
Reſolue, I hope we are reſembled,
Uowing our loues to equall death and life, […]
- 1881, Horace Bushnell, Building Eras in Religion:
- they resemble themselves to the swans
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to be like or similar to something else — see also look like
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compare — see compare
Spanish
[edit]Verb
[edit]resemble
- inflection of resemblar:
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sem-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms prefixed with re-
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Appearance
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms