childish or childlike

Philippines
January 18, 2007 9:14pm CST
which are you? and how would you differentiate one from the other?
4 responses
• India
21 Jan 07
When you say someone is childish it is more like a negative remark and when you say some one is childlike its a compliment! But I really don't know how people decide which word they want to use.Because I can't differentiate these two words in any other sense except in the sense in which they are used. Because both have the same meaning. Coming to think of it now,I think childish would mean someone who acts in an immature way whereas childlike would be someone who is as fresh and innocent as a child! People say I am very childish,guess I will go with that :)
1 person likes this
• Philippines
22 Jan 07
i think you have differentiated them well in your last paragraph. is it okay with you to be called childish, then?
• India
22 Jan 07
yeah kinda fine wid me...got used to it before I got to know the difference between childish and childlike! So doesn't make much of a difference now :P
1 person likes this
• United States
31 Jan 07
I believe that CHILDISH is 'something immature' and CHILDLIKE is 'comparing to a child's behavor'.
• United States
23 Jan 07
Childish is the act of being childlike. Childlike is the noun. I think they are the same hust in a different tense. Some people may take offense to one more than the other but I feel like it is fine to be either because they are the same. Childish and childlike represent freesom of ihibition to me and I'm all for that.
• United States
23 Jan 07
I THINK EVERYONE HAS THIS TILL THEY DIE IT COMES OUT ONCE IN A WHILE DURING YOUR LIFE IT IS WHAT MAKES US YOUNG