similitude

plural similitudes

1. uncountableSimilarity or resemblance to something else.

   Renaissance man thought in terms of similitudes: the theatre of life, the mirror of nature. […] Aemulation was similitude within distance: the sky resembled a face because it had “eyes” — the sun and moon.

   1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN)

   1 more example

   So am I tossed on the ebbing tide of life—now in sunshine, now in shade—seemingly free, yet, in reality, fettered by the strong, though slight chain of circumstance. For a small sum, any passenger may enter that boat and direct its course; and here again is similitude. I am at the beck of others.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 150

2. countableA way in which two people or things share similitude.

   Renaissance man thought in terms of 'similitudes': the theatre of life, the mirror of nature. […] Aemulation was similitude within distance: the sky resembled a face because it had “eyes” — the sun and moon.

   1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN)

3. countableSomeone or something that closely resembles another; a duplicate or twin.

   If I was certain of anything in the world, I was certain that I had seen my brother in the study — nay, more, had touched him, — and equally certain that I had seen his double — his exact similitude, in the garden.

   1852, Wilkie Collins, Nine O'Clock!

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   But others declare that no Creature can be made or tranſmuted into a better or vvorſe, or transformed into another ſpecies or ſimilitude, by man, or devill. […] Martinus [i.e., Martin] Delrio the Jeſuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beaſt to be an illuſion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature; for, the ſoule of man cannot informe a beaſts body, […]

   1653, John Bulwer, “Scene XXIIII. Cruell and Fantasticall Inventions of Men Practised upon Their Bodies in a Supposed Way of Bravery, and Wicked Practices both of Men and Devils to Alter and Deforme the Humane Fabricke”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changling […], 2nd edition, London: […] William Hunt, →OCLC, page 521

4. countableuncountableA parable or allegory.

   And he spake many thynges to them in similitudes, sayinge: Beholde, the sower wentt forth to sowe, And as he sowed, some fell by the wayes side [...].

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew

5. countablegeometryA similarity: a transformation of Euclidean space that preserves angles and the ratios of distances.