Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: veneer
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing when regarded as similar to that of another person or thing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: veneer
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing which is different from what the person or thing actually is; also, an outward appearance of a thing which does not actually exist.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: veneer
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: portrait
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
Qualifier: always in the negative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A person's non-verbal behaviour or demeanour which shows their feelings, thoughts, etc., or which is faked to hide such true feelings, thoughts, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, dated
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The chance of something happening; likelihood, probability.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: likeness
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: picture, image, icon, ikon
Narrower terms: Identikit, Identikit picture, portrait, portrayal
noun
an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: gloss, color, colour
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: appearance, visual aspect
Narrower terms: color of law, colour of law, simulacrum, face value, guise, pretense, pretence, pretext, disguise, camouflage, verisimilitude
noun
an erroneous mental representation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: illusion
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: appearance
Narrower terms: apparition, phantom, phantasm, phantasma, fantasm, shadow, irradiation, phantom limb
History
From Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; condition or fact of being apparent; symbolic image; facial expression, countenance; conduct, manner; image, likeness; analogy, comparison”), from Anglo-Norman semblaunce and Old French semblance (modern French semblance), from semblant, the present participle of sembler (“to appear; to resemble, seem”), from Late Latin similāre, the present active infinitive of similō, a variant of Latin simulō (“to act or behave as if; to imitate, simulate”), from similis (“like resembling, similar to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, semble + -ance (suffix forming nouns denoting conditions or states).
Across languages
33 source translations are retained for this English entry.
