liked

Liked is the past tense and past participle of the verb like. Like denotes enjoyment, approval, or a sense of similarity, and its past forms are like (present), liked (past), and liked (past participle). It is a regular verb, formed by adding -ed to the base: I liked the movie; they have liked many books this year.

In grammar, liked expresses a completed action or a general preference. It can take a direct object or be followed by clauses: “I liked the food,” “I liked that you called.” In perfect tenses, it appears as have/has/had liked. The passive form is “was/were liked by …” or “has been liked.” The sense of likeness—similarity to something or someone—uses the adjective like, not the participle liked.

In modern usage, like also appears as a noun in the sense of a preference or a thing that is similar. In social media, the noun and verb forms underpin the concept of “likes,” a metric for indicating approval or interest in posts, photos, or comments; counts can affect visibility or engagement on many platforms.

Originating from Old English lician, meaning to please or be similar, like has developed into a versatile word for expressing enjoyment, preference, or resemblance. It shares roots with related Germanic words for similarity and likeness. Synonyms include enjoy, prefer, and admire; antonyms include dislike and hate.