(likelier, likeliest)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to indicate that something is probably the case or will probably happen in a particular situation.
Experts say a ‘yes’ vote is still the ~ outcome...
If this is your first baby, it’s far more ~ that you’ll get to the hospital too early...
Francis thought it ~ John still loved her.
= probable
? un~
ADJ: oft it v-link ADJ that
•
Likely is also an adverb.
Profit will most ~ have risen by about ?25 million...
Very ~ he’d told them he had American business interests.
= probably
ADV: ADV with cl/group
2.
If someone or something is ~ to do a particular thing, they will very probably do it.
In the meantime the war of nerves seems ~ to continue...
Once people have seen that something actually works, they are much more ~ to accept change.
? un~
ADJ: v-link ADJ to-inf
3.
A ~ person, place, or thing is one that will probably be suitable for a particular purpose.
At one point he had seemed a ~ candidate to become Prime Minister...
We aimed the microscope at a ~ looking target.
ADJ: ADJ n
4.
You can say not ~ as an emphatic way of saying ‘no’, especially when someone asks you whether you are going to do something. (INFORMAL)
‘How about having a phone out here?’—‘Not ~!’
= no way
CONVENTION emphasis