From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishresemblere‧sem‧ble /rɪˈzembəl/ ●○○ verb [transitive] LIKE/SIMILARto look like or be similar to someone or something It’s amazing how closely Brian and Steve resemble each other. He grew up to resemble his father.COLLOCATIONSadverbscloselyThis poem closely resembles an earlier one.strongly/greatlyThe 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. 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.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
resemble• Gradually it became more institutionalised as something resembling organised diplomatic services emerged.• To the outsider the movements of a kata resemble a dance routine.• In this sense, consciousness resembles breathing, digestion, and so on.• True believers say the effort resembles cutting-edge, private-sector management at its best.• The output was a bar graph to show how much the new input resembled each of the ten people.• Starkly primeval, it resembles the head of a giant gorilla!• The philosopher Scott Buchanan once observed in conversation that science resembles theater.closely ... resemble• Flaccid, deeply dissected, submerged foliage closely resembling an out-stretched bird's foot.• Why do fossils most closely resembling living animals appear only in the highest and youngest strata?• He observed that his ears, made almost transparent by the sunlight, closely resembled a pair of human embryos.• The outer half of the belt is dominated by the C-type asteroids, very dark materials that closely resemble carbonaceous meteorites.• Its flavor more closely resembles that of fresh milk than that of canned milk.• It operates through receptors whose molecular and physiological properties closely resemble the calcium-mobilizing ryanodine receptors of muscle.• Is there a remedy picture which most closely resembles the important features of the case?• His coffee mugs were said to more closely resemble vats than cups.Origin resemble (1300-1400) Old French resembler, from sembler “to be like, seem”, from Latin similare “to copy” 