appearance
//əˈpɪə.ɹəns//
Forms
- Plural
- appearances
Definitions
1.The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye.
- His sudden appearance surprised me.
2.A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition.
- There was a strange appearance in the sky.
3.The way something looks; personal presence
4.Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others.
- Judge not according to the appearance.
- Some people say I'm shallow because I care so much about my appearance.
- And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1914
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
Etymology
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”).