Similar or simular?
similar is an adjective meaning “Having traits or characteristics in common; alike, allied, comparable”; simular is an adjective meaning “false; specious; counterfeit”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) similar is about 4,365 times as common as simular.
What is the difference between similar and simular?
| similar | simular | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Having traits or characteristics in common; alike, allied, comparable Having the same shape, in particular, having corresponding angles equal and corresponding line segments proportional That which is similar to, or resembles, something else, as in quality, form, etc | |
| Example | My new car is quite similar to my old one, except it has a bit more space in the back | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsɪm.ɪ.lə/ /ˈsɪm.ə.lə/ /ˈsɪm.ə.lɚ/ | /ˈsɪmjʊlə(ɹ)/ |
| In writing | 162 times per million words | about once in every 27 million words |
Sources: similar and simular in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of similar and simular
similar
- 1
Having traits or characteristics in common; alike, allied, comparable
My new car is quite similar to my old one, except it has a bit more space in the back
- 2
That which is similar to, or resembles, something else, as in quality, form, etc
- 3
Having the same shape, in particular, having corresponding angles equal and corresponding line segments proportional
- 4
A material that produces an effect that resembles the symptoms of a particular disease
- 5
Of two square matrices; being such that a conjugation sends one matrix to the other
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, similar or simular?
similar appears 162 times per million words; simular about once in every 27 million words.
similar 162 times per million wordssimular about once in every 27 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search similar vs simular?
“similar vs simular” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“simular vs similar”, “similar or simular”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.