lifelike

L1I1F4E1L1I1K5E1
/ˈlaɪflaɪk/

adjective

Likely to live.

“a lifelike portrait”

Less commonFirst used 1610sScrabble 15Word of the Day · Jun 19, 2026

Meanings

adjectivelifelike (comparative more lifelike, superlative most lifelike)

comparative more lifelike · superlative most lifelike

  1. obsoleteLikely to live.First known use 1610s
  2. Like a living being; resembling life; being an accurate representation.First known use 1725

    a lifelike portrait

    3 more examples

    The robot was so lifelike, Jack could hardly tell it apart from his sister.

    The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

    1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

    But part of the movie’s nonstop fun is the way [Christopher] McQuarrie taps back into the genre’s (and this series’) games of subterfuge, misdirection, and indeterminate loyalties, beginning with the fiendishly clever rug-pull of its worst-case-scenario prologue and epitomized by the goofily irresistible sight of characters dramatically ripping off lifelike rubber masks.

    2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2018

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveevoking lifelike images within the mind

adjectivefree from artificiality

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*leyp-
  2. Proto-Germanic*lībaną
  3. Proto-Germanic*lībą
  4. Proto-West Germanic*līb
  5. Old Englishlīf
  6. Middle Englishlyf
  7. Englishlife
  8. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  9. Proto-Germanic*līką
  10. Englishlifelike

From life + -like. First attested in the 1610s.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 逼真
  • 逼真 (bīzhēn)Like a living being, resembling life
Dutch levensecht
  • levensechtLike a living being, resembling life
Finnish elävä
  • eläväLike a living being, resembling life
French très réaliste, très ressemblant
  • très réalisteLike a living being, resembling life
  • très ressemblantLike a living being, resembling life
German lebensecht
  • lebensechtLike a living being, resembling life
Hungarian életszerű, élethű
  • életszerűLike a living being, resembling life
  • élethűLike a living being, resembling life
Indonesian hidup
  • hidupLike a living being, resembling life
Polish jak żywy, realistyczny
  • jak żywyLike a living being, resembling life
  • realistycznyLike a living being, resembling life
Spanish natural, verosímil
  • naturalLike a living being, resembling life
  • verosímilLike a living being, resembling life
Swedish levande
  • levandeLike a living being, resembling life
Turkish canlı gibi
  • canlı gibiLike a living being, resembling life

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

lifelike. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lifelike

MLA

“lifelike.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lifelike. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lifelike,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lifelike.

Source: lifelike on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.