Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Accurately representing real life: synonym: vivid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Simulating or resembling life; giving the impression of real life: as, a lifelike portrait or narrative.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Like a living being; resembling life; giving an accurate representation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Like a living being, resembling life, giving an accurate representation, as, a lifelike portrait.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective evoking lifelike images within the mind
  • adjective free from artificiality

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

life +‎ -like

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Examples

  • Your straw men do have a certain lifelike quality to them that most trolls lack, I must say.

    Think Progress » Perriello Blasts GOP Leaders In Washington For Refusing To Completely Denounce Harassment Of Democrats 2010

  • It dawned on him that he wanted to work with adult characters in lifelike relationships.

    Sex, Lies, and Videogames 2006

  • It dawned on him that he wanted to work with adult characters in lifelike relationships.

    Sex, Lies, and Videogames 2006

  • Zola, whose so-called lifelike pictures of the French bourgeois, of a workman, soldier, and peasant, he described as gloomy, pessimistic, and calumnious caricatures.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913

  • The action figures are described as lifelike, fully articulated figures in 3. 75-inch, 6-inch and 12-inch scales.

    SCI FI Wire 2009

  • Japan is a nation obsessed with the idea of lifelike robots.

    Conflict Zen 2009

  • I also agree that the great 19th century realists were actually radicals in their time, overturning as they did the picaresque and romantic modes of storytelling they'd inherited from the first generation of novelists in favor of narratives that focused more on details of setting and on creating plausibly "lifelike" characters.

    Realism in Fiction 2008

  • I was under the impression that the guy who made it wanted the robot to have a body that looks as much like a person as possible and so used a Real Doll (or whatever brand it is) which is made to be as 'lifelike' as possible, including to the touch.

    Female robot is the perfect companion, receptionist, sexual assault victim - Feministing 2008

  • By using inflatable material (like they use for parade balloons), and that would give the monster some 'lifelike' qualities.

    Godzilla Building 2007

  • Looking at a dead body, one that has been drained of both life force and fluids, embalmed, dressed nicely, painted up, looking either like something from Madame Tussaud's wax museum or worse, so "lifelike" you almost expect it to breathe or suddenly sit up, yeah, you bet that gives me the creeps.

    Gone for Good Coben, Harlan, 1962- 2002

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