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Like can be an adverb, a conjunction, an interjection, a preposition, a particle, an adjective, a noun or a verb.

like used as an adverb:

  1. for example, such as: to introduce an example or list of examples
    "There are lots of birds like ducks and gulls in this park."

An adverb is a word that modifies an adjective (very red), verb (quietly running), or another adverb (very carefully). Learn more →

like used as a conjunction:

  1. As if; as though.
    "It looks like you've finished the project."

Conjunctions are connector words. Examples of conjunctions are: and, but, so. They help us to group words and connect phrases, like in the sentence: "We have apples and oranges, but we need bananas." Learn more →

like used as an interjection:

  1. Used to place emphasis upon a statement.
    "divint ye knaa, like?"

An interjection is an abrupt remark like Oh! or Dear me, or Eww. It is usually used to express the strong emotions of the speaker. The sentence 'Congratulations! You won the gold medal!' shows the use of 'congratulations' as an interjection. Learn more →

like used as a preposition:

  1. Somewhat similar to, reminiscent of.
    "These hamburgers taste like leather."

Prepositions are used to show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word. Examples of prepositions are: in, during, beside, after, for. In the sentence "Sows suffer in factory farms." The preposition "in" tells us the position of the sow relative to the factory farm. Learn more →

like used as a particle:


  1. "He was so angry, like."

  2. "She was, like, sooooo happy."

  3. "There were, like, twenty of them."

  4. "I was like, “Why did you do that?” and he's like, “I don't know.”"

undefined Learn more →

like used as an adjective:

  1. similar
    "My partner and I have like minds."

Adjectives are are describing words. An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun (examples: small, scary, silly). Adjectives make the meaning of a noun more precise. Learn more →

like used as a noun:

  1. Something that a person likes (prefers).
    "Tell me your likes and dislikes."
  2. (sometimes as the likes of) Someone similar to a given person, or something similar to a given object; a comparative; a type; a sort.
    "We shall never see his like again. — Winston Churchill on T.E. Lawrence"

Nouns are naming words. They are used to represent a person (soldier, Jamie), place (Germany, beach), thing (telephone, mirror), quality (hardness, courage), or an action (a run, a punch). Learn more →

like used as a verb:

  1. To please.
  2. To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.
    "I like hamburgers."
  3. To prefer and maintain (an action) as a regular habit or activity.
    "I like to go to the dentist every six months."
  4. To find attractive; to prefer the company of; to have mild romantic feelings for.
    "I really like Sandra but don't know how to tell her."

Verbs are action words and state of being words. Examples of action words are: ran, attacking, dreamed. Examples of "state of being" words are: is, was, be. Learn more →

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What type of word is like?

As detailed above, 'like' can be an adverb, a conjunction, an interjection, a preposition, a particle, an adjective, a noun or a verb. Here are some examples of its usage:
  1. Adverb usage: There are lots of birds like ducks and gulls in this park.
  2. Conjunction usage: It looks like you've finished the project.
  3. Conjunction usage: It seemed like you didn't care.
  4. Interjection usage: divint ye knaa, like?
  5. Preposition usage: These hamburgers taste like leather.
  6. Particle usage: He was so angry, like.
  7. Particle usage: She was, like, sooooo happy.
  8. Particle usage: There were, like, twenty of them.
  9. Particle usage: And then he, like, got all angry and left the room.
  10. Particle usage: I was like, “Why did you do that?” and he's like, “I don't know.”
  11. Adjective usage: My partner and I have like minds.
  12. Noun usage: Tell me your likes and dislikes.
  13. Noun usage: We shall never see his like again. — Winston Churchill on T.E. Lawrence
  14. Noun usage: There were bowls full of sweets, chocolates and the like.
  15. Noun usage: It was something the likes of which I had never seen before.
  16. Verb usage: I like hamburgers.
  17. Verb usage: I like skiing in winter.
  18. Verb usage: I like the Milwaukee Braves this season.
  19. Verb usage: I like to go to the dentist every six months.
  20. Verb usage: She likes to keep herself physically fit.
  21. Verb usage: We like to keep one around the office just in case.
  22. Verb usage: I really like Sandra but don't know how to tell her.

Unfortunately, with the current database that runs this site, I don't have data about which senses of like are used most commonly. I've got ideas about how to fix this but will need to find a source of "sense" frequencies. Hopefully there's enough info above to help you understand the part of speech of like, and guess at its most common usage.

Word Type

For those interested in a little info about this site: it's a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for - just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn't be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary - which is now in the public domain. However, after a day's work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary - which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it's not properly structured for parsing. That's when I stumbled across the UBY project - an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I'm happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

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