Standard Lemma guide

superficially

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • CMU ARPABET: S UW1 P ER0 F IH2 SH AH0 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a superficial manner; shallowly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

in a superficial manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he was superficially interested

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English superficial Middle English -ly English -ly English superficially From superficial + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: superficialment — in a superficial manner
  • Dutch: oppervlakkig — in a superficial manner
  • Estonian: pealiskaudselt — in a superficial manner
  • Finnish: pinnallisesti — in a superficial manner
  • French: superficiellement — in a superficial manner
  • Galician: superficialmente — in a superficial manner
  • German: oberflächlich — in a superficial manner
  • Greek: ακροθιγώς (akrothigós) — in a superficial manner
  • Ancient Greek: ἐπιπολαίως (epipolaíōs) — in a superficial manner
  • Italian: superficialmente — in a superficial manner
  • Kazakh: үстіртін (üstırtın) — in a superficial manner
  • Northern Kurdish: serpilkî — in a superficial manner
  • Malagasy: harak-ambony — in a superficial manner
  • Polish: powierzchownie — in a superficial manner
  • Portuguese: superficialmente — in a superficial manner
  • Russian: поверхностно (poverxnostno) — in a superficial manner
  • Spanish: superficialmente — in a superficial manner
  • Swedish: ytligt — in a superficial manner
  • Telugu: పైపైగా (paipaigā) — in a superficial manner
Real reading context

superficially in complete knowledge articles