Link Centre Dictionary

ostensible

os·ten·sible

UK/ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/ US/ɑˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/ uncommon

adjective

1.

appearing as such but not necessarily so

  • “for all his apparent wealth he had no money to pay the rent”
  • “the committee investigated some apparent discrepancies”
  • “the ostensible truth of their theories”
  • “his seeming honesty”
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2.

represented or appearing as such; pretended

  • “His ostensible purpose was charity, his real goal popularity”
Synonyms
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Origin

Borrowed from French ostensible, formed with the suffix -ible, from Latin ostensus, the past participle of ostendō (“show”), itself from obs- (“in front of”) (akin to ob- (“in the way”)) + tendō (“stretch”) (akin to Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō)). Cf. also Medieval Latin ostensibilis.

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.