unliken

U1N1L1I1K5E1N1

verb

To make unlike or describe as being unlike.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

verbunliken (third-person singular simple present unlikens, present participle unlikening, simple past and past participle unlikened)

present singular third person unlikens · participle present unlikening · participle past unlikened · past unlikened

  1. transitiveTo make unlike or describe as being unlike.

    "To unliken them would make nonsense of any poem," I said.

    1948, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 264, page 178
    2 more examples

    At some time, in a similar mood, Flaubert made an undated entry on the last page of one of his travel notebooks, likening and unlikening his accesses of depression to the midsummer rising of the Nile: 'Oh Nile!'

    1996, Gustave Flaubert, Flaubert in Egypt, page 151

    At which point, my mind abandons the count, rationalising that there are countless more unlikening bricks in this building.

    2023, Leilani Taneus-Miller, Brown Girl

Origin

  1. Middle Englishunliknen
  2. Englishunliken

From Middle English unliknen, equivalent to un- + liken.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

unliken. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unliken

MLA

“unliken.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unliken. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unliken,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unliken.

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