svipaða

svipaða is an Icelandic word that functions as an inflected form of the adjective svipaður, meaning similar or alike. It is used to indicate resemblance between two or more nouns and is commonly found in noun phrases where the dependent noun is feminine and in a particular grammatical case. In everyday Icelandic, svipaða helps express likeness in characteristics, meanings, or appearances, much like “similar” in English.

Etymology and cognates: The Icelandic svipaður derives from Old Norse svipaðr, and is part of a family of North Germanic adjectives that convey likeness. The form svipaða reflects Icelandic inflection patterns for feminine nouns in certain cases, alongside other inflected forms of the same adjective used with different genders, numbers, and cases. Related terms include líkur and álíka, which are other ways to express similarity.

Usage: svipaða appears in phrases where a feminine noun is directly described as being similar to another entity. It is versatile in both speech and writing and can pair with abstract ideas as well as concrete nouns. While svipaða is common, Icelandic also offers synonyms and near-synonyms that shade nuance, such as líkur (similar in a general sense) or álíka (like, akin to, in a similar manner).

Notes: Like other Icelandic adjectives, svipaður has multiple inflected forms for gender, number, and case, and svipaða is just one of those forms. Correct usage depends on the noun it modifies and its syntactic role in the sentence.

See also: svipaður, líkur, álíka.