Link Centre Dictionary

appearance

ap·pea·rance

UK/əˈpɪə.ɹəns/ US/əˈpiɹ.əns/ common

noun

1.
2.

the event of coming into sight

Antonyms
3.
4.

a mental representation

  • “I tried to describe his appearance to the police”
5.

the act of appearing in public view

  • “the rookie made a brief appearance in the first period”
  • “it was Bernhardt”
Antonyms
6.

pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression

  • “they try to keep up appearances”
  • “that ceremony is just for show”
Synonyms

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo. Morphologically appear + -ance. Doublet of apparence and apparency. Displaced native Old English hīew (“the way something looks or seems”) and ætīewednes (“act of appearing or coming into view”).

Phrases

  • abrupt appearance
  • appearance money
  • court appearance
  • keep up appearances
  • make an appearance
  • plate appearance
  • put in an appearance
  • save appearances

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.