the nearest thing to something
the nearest equivalent to something

I have turned the Common Speech and all related things into the nearest English equivalents.

I suppose the nearest equivalent of recent times is Johnathan Edwards.

On dry land the nearest equivalents of the filter-feeders are the grazers.

In the 21st century, the nearest equivalent is a university.

It was the nearest equivalent of the modern oscilloscope in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Perhaps the nearest English equivalent is a "done deal".

The nearest English equivalent to the term mangas is wide boy, or spiv.

That made them the nearest terrestrial equivalent to warships.

"It's the nearest modern equivalent to his old profession," Wesley said.

The nearest equivalent would be the sound of music.