らしい

• (Tokyo) らしい [ràshíꜜì] (Nakadaka – [2])
• IPA^(key): [ɾa̠ɕiː]

らしい • (-rashii) -i (adverbial らしく (-rashiku))

1. (after nouns, adverbs or adjective stems)
   1. to be like or equivalent to; to be perceived as

      男(おとこ) (otoko, “man”) - 男(おとこ)らしい (otokorashii, “manly”)

      汚(きたな)い (kitanai, “dirty”) - 汚(きたな)らしい (kitanarashii, “looking dirty”)

      大人(おとな)らしくするつもりだったのに、大(おお)騒(さわ)ぎしてしまった。

      Otonarashiku suru tsumori datta no ni, ōsawagi shite shimatta.

      Despite the fact that I planned to act like an adult, I ended up making a big ruckus.

      • 2003 September 22, Akinobu Uraku, “第(だい)63話(わ)　幼(おさな)い記(き)憶(おく) [Chapter 63: Childish Memories]”, in 東(とう)京(きょう)アンダーグラウンド [Tokyo Underground], volume 11 (fiction), Square Enix, →ISBN, pages 109–110:

        たまには女(おんな)の子(こ)らしいお前(まえ)もいいけど　ルリの事(こと)考(かんが)えてるお前(まえ)が一(いち)番(ばん)お前(まえ)らしいと思(おも)ってな！

        Tama ni wa onna no ko rashii o-mae mo ii kedo Ruri no koto kangaeteru o-mae ga ichiban o-mae rashii to omotte na!

        It’s nice to have you be ladylike every once in a while. But it’s much better to have you be yourself every time you think about Ruri!

   2. to cause a feeling or emotion

      愛(あい) (ai, “love”) - 愛(あい)らしい (airashii, “lovable”)

• The suffix らしい (-rashii) usually denotes a quality that is somehow appropriate to or positive for the noun being described. Meanwhile, synonym っぽい (-ppoi) describes a quality that is somehow inappropriate to or negative for the noun being described. Compare English childlike and childish, womanly and womanish, manly and mannish.

• っぽい (-ppoi)
• よう (yō)
• みたい (mitai)

Considered to be an Early Modern Period change from the earlier suffix usage above, itself in use since the Late Medieval Period, with a possible connection to classical Japanese らし (rashi, an indeclinable 助動詞(じょどうし) (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) expressing hearsay or conjecture). The latter connection is doubtful however, because らし (rashi) stopped being used in the spoken language by the Heian period and was perceived as archaic.^[1]

らしい • (rashii) 

1. (used after the predicate) it seems that; I guess that

   彼(かれ)はどうも来(こ)ないらしい。

   Kare wa dō mo konai rashii.

   He is not coming, apparently.

• This word is morphologically an inflectional suffix. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar. Despite this, conjugated forms other than the terminal form are uncommon, and it's sometimes considered a particle in English.
• The らしければ (rashikereba) conditional construction is rarely used, in favor of constructions like らしかったら (rashikattara) or らしい (rashii) + なら (nara).
• In the modern language, らしい (rashii) differs in usage from classical らし (rashi) in that it can be used to make conjectures about non-fixed conditions.