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Familiar vs Similar - What's the difference?

familiar | similar |

As adjectives the difference between familiar and similar

is that familiar is known to one while similar is having traits or characteristics in common; alike, comparable.

As nouns the difference between familiar and similar

is that familiar is a member of one's family or household while similar is that which is similar to, or resembles, something else, as in quality, form, etc.

familiar

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Known to one.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}
  • Acquainted.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.}}
  • Intimate or friendly.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Be thou familiar , but by no means vulgar.
  • Inappropriately intimate or friendly.
  • (Camden)
  • Of or pertaining to a family; familial.
  • * Byron
  • familiar feuds

    Synonyms

    * (acquainted) acquainted * close, friendly, intimate, personal * (inappropriately intimate or friendly) cheeky, fresh, impudent

    Antonyms

    * (known to one) unfamiliar, unknown * (acquainted) unacquainted * (intimate) cold, cool, distant, impersonal, standoffish, unfriendly

    Derived terms

    * overfamiliar * familiarity * familiarly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A member of one's family or household.
  • (obsolete) A close friend.
  • *, II.i.4.2:
  • a friend of mine, that finding a receipt in Brassavola, would needs take hellebore in substance, and try it on his own person; but had not some of his familiars come to visit him by chance, he had by his indiscretion hazarded himself; many such I have observed.
  • An attendant spirit, often in animal form.
  • The witch’s familiar was a black cat.

    similar

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having traits or characteristics in common; alike, comparable.
  • *
  • *:So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Charles T. Ambrose
  • , title= Alzheimer’s Disease , volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.}}
  • (mathematics) Of geometrical figures including triangles, squares, ellipses, arcs and more complex figures, having the same shape but possibly different size, rotational orientation, and position; in particular, having corresponding angles equal and corresponding line segments proportional; such that one can be had from the other using a sequence of operations of rotation, translation and scaling.
  • Synonyms

    * (with common characteristics) akin, alike, comparable, identical, same, twin

    Antonyms

    * (alike) different, unlike

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That which is similar to, or resembles, something else, as in quality, form, etc.
  • (homeopathy) A material that produces an effect that resembles the symptoms of a particular disease