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Adjectival forms composed with -like with a substantive or an adjective

English Language & Usage Asked by Laurent Duval on December 18, 2020

I want to describe a process that, although not industrial, behaves closely to industrial processes. I have an hesitation between a description with "industrial-like process" or "industry-like process". The wording is not pretty, other options are welcome. Yet, I would like to better understand the "-like" construction.

The first form was already used by a fellow non-native English speaker. I do prefer the second form, since words in -like I know of (like businesslike, porcelainlike) are based on the substantive. As I understand it, the suffix "like" may turns a substantive into an adjectival form, either as a compound adjective (with hyphen) or closed.

So, "industrial-like" seems to me an adjectival redundancy.

  1. Is there a better different choice?
  2. If not, should I use "industrial-like" or "industry-like"?
  3. Could you point to sources on how to build words in .like or .-like, and a rationale in the presence of the hyphen?

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