Difference between Like and Love
By Theydiffer - March 28, 2016

Although we all know that there’s a lot of difference between like and love, we sometimes fail to understand what that difference is. Henceforth, we often end up interchanging the two terms in our daily lives. Nevertheless, most of the time, when it comes to our emotions for someone, we at least know the difference between those we like and those we love.

Whether it is “like” or “love”, both emotions are common and are experienced by almost everyone. While liking someone means being in agreement with them or being pleased with them, loving someone means having a deeper feeling of affection for them. It is almost certain that you like someone whom you love, but it is not necessarily true that you love someone whom you like.

Definitions

Getty Images/Moment/Oscar Wong

Like or liking is a feeling that you can have for many things in life. You can like something or someone on the basis of its outer appearance or inner traits. If you like someone, it is likely that you have a sense of respect for him or her, and usually the feeling would be mutual. You are also likely to agree with them on a majority of things. For example, you may like reading books, but you can’t say you love it, or you may like chocolates, but you may not love eating them.

On the other hand, love or loving is a strong feeling of affection. With those we love, we generally tend to have longer, even everlasting relationships. Now for instance, you will only say to your mother “I love you, Mom”, and not “Mom, I like you”. This is one of the best examples of a relationship that is based purely on love. You can share this beautiful emotion or feeling of love with your sister, brother, kids or spouse.

Furthermore, in the case of some things that we like from the bottom of our heart, we use the word ‘love’ instead of the term ‘like’. This is not wrong, but just a way of showing that you really, really like that thing. For example, I love dancing.

Like vs Love

Like and love are often confused with each other, but the main difference between them is the level of affection you have for something or someone. When you like someone, you feel happy when they are around you. When you love someone, you feel that you simply can’t manage to live without them. While love is based on trust, and may take time to develop, like is an instant feeling. You can just like anything, but you choose to love something. Like means admiration, but love means acceptance and endurance, come what may.

Comparison Chart

Like Love
Liking a person makes you smile in front of them.Loving someone may make you smile as well as blush.
Like is a pleasant and benign feeling.Love is more of a strong and deep feeling of affection and personal attachment.
Certain aspects such as physical beauty and other traits may define liking for something.In contrast, love is an unconditional emotion.