Meaning & use
looks
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
Third person singular of look: directs the eyes toward something, or seems a certain way.
Grammar: Used with at, like or an adjective: she looks at the map; it looks easy.
Patterns
- someone looks at something
- someone looks adjective
- something looks like something
He looks at the clock every few minutes.
The cake looks delicious.
She looks like her mother.
nounplural
A person's appearance, especially how attractive they are.
Grammar: Plural; used without an article: good looks.
Patterns
- good looks
- judge someone by their looks
He has his father's good looks.
Don't judge people by their looks alone.
She kept her looks into her eighties.
nounplural
Glances or expressions directed at someone, showing a feeling.
Grammar: Plural of look: they exchanged looks.
Patterns
- give someone looks
- exchange looks
The children exchanged nervous looks.
She gave him angry looks across the room.
Word forms
| base form | look |
|---|---|
| past tense | looked |
| -ing form | looking |
Common combinations
- looks good
- The new website looks good on phones.
- good looks
- His good looks helped him get acting jobs.
- looks like
- It looks like rain this afternoon.
- looks forward to
- She looks forward to the weekend.
- looks after
- He looks after his younger brother.
Synonyms and how they differ
- appears
- Appears is more formal than looks and often used in written reports.
- seems
- Seems expresses an impression from thinking or feeling, while looks relies on what can be seen.
- appearance
- Appearance is the formal noun for how something looks, and is not usually plural.
- glances
- Glances are quick looks, while looks can last longer.
Word family
Commonly confused: looks or lux? looks or luck?
looks vs lux
Lux is a unit of light and sounds nothing like looks in careful speech.
looks vs luck
Luck is good fortune; looks is spelled with oo.
Practice
Choose the correct spelling: That cake ____ delicious.
Choose one answer.
Looks, with double o and a single k, is the third person singular of look. The other options are misspellings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “looks”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.