resemblere‧sem‧ble /rɪˈzembəl/ ●○○ verb [transitive] 
It’s amazing how closely Brian and Steve resemble each other. He grew up to resemble his father.GRAMMAR: Using the progressiveResemble is not used in the progressive. You say: · The flower resembles a rose. ✗Don’t say: The flower is resembling a rose.Grammar guide ‒ VERBSCOLLOCATIONSadverbsclosely· This poem closely resembles an earlier one.strongly/greatly· The ancient tools discovered in Ethiopia strongly resemble those found in Tanzania.vaguely (=slightly)· I heard a weird sound vaguely resembling the bark of a dog.superficially (=in its appearance)· Termites resemble ants superficially.phrasesnothing remotely resembling something (=nothing at all like something or as good as something)· Nothing remotely resembling a cure has been found.resemble nothing so much as something (=look or seem rather like something)· The building resembled nothing so much as giant beehive.
WORD ORIGINresemble
Origin:
1300-1400 Old French resembler, from sembler ‘to be like, seem’, from Latin similare ‘to copy’VERB TABLE
resemble
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | resemble |
| he, she, it | resembles | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | resembled |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have resembled |
| he, she, it | has resembled | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had resembled |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will resemble |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have resembled |
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- Gradually it became more institutionalised as something resembling organised diplomatic services emerged.
- In this sense, consciousness resembles breathing, digestion, and so on.
- Starkly primeval, it resembles the head of a giant gorilla!
- The output was a bar graph to show how much the new input resembled each of the ten people.
- The philosopher Scott Buchanan once observed in conversation that science resembles theater.
- To the outsider the movements of a kata resemble a dance routine.
- True believers say the effort resembles cutting-edge, private-sector management at its best.
Longman Language Activatorlike something or someone else
similar to something or someone: · The houses here are like the ones in northern France.· My mother has a car like yours.look/feel/sound/smell/taste like: · She laughed like a child and played with her hair.· This is such beautiful material - it feels like silk.· It looks a bit like a cactus.something like (=fairly similar): · This superb almost-flourless chocolate cake is something like a brownie for grownups.nothing like (=not at all similar): · Life at college was nothing like I expected.
if one thing is similar to another, or if two or more things are similar , they are like each other: · I know how you feel, because I have a similar problem.· It's bigger than Jim's room, but it's very similar.· When you look at these two carpets, you can see that the patterns are very similar.similar to: · Do you have anything similar to this material but cheaper?· The Marines also experimented with fast-attack vehicles, similar to dune buggies.
if two or more things or people are alike , they are very similar in some way: · You lawyers are all alike. You just talk a lot, tell a few lies, and send the bill.· I think my mother and I are very much alike in some ways.· As the personal computer market matured, computer makers have realized that not all PC buyers are alike.look/think/sound etc alike: · The album is boring - all of their songs sound alike.
very similar: · Soldiers are much the same throughout the world.much the same as: · Bodie looks much the same as the day the mines closed down.much the same....as/that: · The glass is still made in much the same way as it was 100 years ago.· The warranty would cover the electric car's battery pack in much the same way that gasoline engines are protected.look/feel/smell/taste much the same: · All these wines taste much the same.
to be similar in appearance or character: · Geraldine resembled her mother in every way.· Addis Ababa soon resembled an armed camp.closely resemble: · We have produced a cloth made of pineapple fibre, closely resembling cotton but stronger.bear a strong/close/striking resemblance to: · She's seventy-six, short, round and fair, and bears a strong resemblance to my own grandmother.bear some/little/no resemblance to: · The London of the new millennium bears little resemblance to the London of my youth.
similar in size, number, quality etc so that a comparison is possible: · Climatic conditions in the two countries are roughly comparable.comparable with/to: · The size of a dolphin's brain is comparable to a human's.comparable in size/importance etc: · The planet Pluto is comparable in size to our Moon.
if something is akin to something else, it is very similar to it in character - used especially in literature: · It's a language closely akin to Arabic, and most Syrians would understand it.· It was with a feeling akin to despair that I realized the car was not going to start.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadverbs a creature that closely resembles a red monkeyCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
to look like or be similar to someone or something: · This poem closely resembles an earlier one.
· The ancient tools discovered in Ethiopia strongly resemble those found in Tanzania.
(=slightly)· I heard a weird sound vaguely resembling the bark of a dog.
(=in its appearance)· Termites resemble ants superficially.
phrases (=nothing at all like something or as good as something)· Nothing remotely resembling a cure has been found.
(=look or seem rather like something)· The building resembled nothing so much as giant beehive.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES a creature that closely resembles a red monkey· W says the material removes resonance and standing waves, reproducing music that more closely resembles the original.· It operates through receptors whose molecular and physiological properties closely resemble the calcium-mobilizing ryanodine receptors of muscle.· Emersed and submersed plants closely resemble each other.· Flaccid, deeply dissected, submerged foliage closely resembling an out-stretched bird's foot.· It closely resembles E. macrophyllus and like the latter has no pellucid markings in the leaf blades.· Spinelets are confined to the radial shields in G. arcticus and more closely resemble large granules.· Patients who have recurrent attacks of gouty arthritis may develop features closely resembling rheumatoid arthritis.
· It is in the features of this sociable disposition rather than in societal structure that the chimpanzee most resembles man.· At daybreak or dusk, the pyramids most resemble the limestone monuments seen by the old explorers.· BHowever, it is a president Clinton almost never mentions who he resembles most closely -- Lyndon B.. Johnson.· But the player who most resembled the Becker of old was 31st-ranked Costa.· Britain's leading wave-jumping event, in its fourth year, is staged in Tiree because the swells most resemble Hawaii's.· This impressive-looking pocket modem most resembles a Walkman.
· Whales and hippos may not much resemble each other nowadays, but retain some hints of kinship.· It resembled much more one of the helmet faces painted on the skulls in the rack behind me.
· Feminist extensions of conventional psychological methodology often resemble more explicitly oppositional programmes for social scientific method.· Republican conference meetings, the closed-doors strategy sessions, have often resembled revival meetings, said Rep.
· It should not be imagined, however, that the newborn Earth remotely resembled the world in which we live today.· In the 1990s alone, some 2 million anglers have fished here without hooking anything even remotely resembling this record fish.· I never want to go through anything even remotely resembling our marriage ever again.· There is no human society that remotely resembles this particular pattern.· Nowhere inside our brains or eyes has any neuroscientist ever found anything remotely resembling our constant everyday experience of light.
· This is an imposing structure, somewhat resembling in its frontage on two streets the keep of a Norman castle.· These are extremely small, single-cell structures that somewhat resemble bacteria on Earth.· Species somewhat resembling that shown are numerous in the Tertiary marine formations, and similar species live today in sandy sea bottoms.· It is no coincidence that combat soldiers, particularly paratroops, wear camouflage uniforms that somewhat resemble a leopard's spotted coat.
NOUN· It should eventually be in a form which resembles the way in which the research will be presented.· Musical jades were angular in form, resembling carpenters' squares.
· Not surprisingly these force patterns resemble the pattern of magnetic field lines across the aperture of a quadrupole magnet.· The Mormon settlement pattern resembled that of earlier Asiatic societies in that each community was engaged in basically the same activities.· Flight patterns resemble Peregrine and Hobby.· One minute after mixing this footprint is no longer evident and the pattern resembles that in the control.
· They will in this respect resemble our own rules of etiquette.· In this respect at least, Mozart resembles his comparably productive contemporary Joseph Haydn.· A new course in a number of respects resembles a research or development project.· It inevitably strikes the reader of Out that the main character enters periodically into what in many respects resembles schizophrenia.· In this respect the gorilla resembles man more than the chimpanzee.
· Distantly related species may come to resemble one another closely.· Such is the method of camouflage in which a species evolves to resemble its background.· A few species generally resembling this one occur in Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks.
· But man is, in general, sexually dimorphic in ways which do not resemble his ape cousins.· But the route she took to Washington in many ways resembles the one traveled by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
VERB· One straightened stream begins to resemble another.· Salomon Brothers began to resemble the rest of Wall Street.· Six weeks later, most of its organs are present and its outward appearance begins to resemble that of a baby.· The hall had suddenly begun to resemble a police station.
It’s amazing how closely Brian and Steve resemble each other. He grew up to resemble his father.GRAMMAR: Using the progressiveResemble is not used in the progressive. You say: · The flower resembles a rose. ✗Don’t say: The flower is resembling a rose.Grammar guide ‒ VERBSCOLLOCATIONSadverbsclosely· This poem closely resembles an earlier one.strongly/greatly· The ancient tools discovered in Ethiopia strongly resemble those found in Tanzania.vaguely (=slightly)· I heard a weird sound vaguely resembling the bark of a dog.superficially (=in its appearance)· Termites resemble ants superficially.phrasesnothing remotely resembling something (=nothing at all like something or as good as something)· Nothing remotely resembling a cure has been found.resemble nothing so much as something (=look or seem rather like something)· The building resembled nothing so much as giant beehive.