"on the face of it" meaning in English

See on the face of it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on the face of it.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} on the face of it, {{en-PP}} on the face of it
  1. (idiomatic) Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: at first glance, apparently, prima facie, ostensibly Related terms: ex facie, prima facie, on the face of, on the face of the earth, take at face value Translations (as far as can be seen or determined): عَلَى مَا يَبْدُوْ (ʕalā mā yabduw) (Arabic), لِأَوَّلِ وَهْلَةٍ (liʔawwali wahlatin) (Arabic), 從表面上看 (Chinese Mandarin), 从表面上看 (cóng biǎomiàn shàng kàn) (Chinese Mandarin), päällisin puolin (Finnish), ensi katsomalta (Finnish), ulkonaisesti (Finnish), pintapuolisesti (Finnish), en apparence (French), a priori (French), לִכְאוֹרָה (lichora) (Hebrew), ránézésre (Hungarian), na pierwszy rzut oka (Polish), по-ви́димому (po-vídimomu) (Russian), на пе́рвый взгляд (na pérvyj vzgljad) (Russian)
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          "text": "On the face of it, his case seemed hopeless. But appearances can be deceptive.",
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        "Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis."
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          "Seemingly",
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        "(idiomatic) Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis."
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        {
          "word": "prima facie"
        },
        {
          "word": "on the face of"
        },
        {
          "word": "on the face of the earth"
        },
        {
          "word": "take at face value"
        }
      ],
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          "word": "at first glance"
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          "word": "apparently"
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        {
          "word": "prima facie"
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        {
          "word": "ostensibly"
        }
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        {
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "ʕalā mā yabduw",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "عَلَى مَا يَبْدُوْ"
        },
        {
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "liʔawwali wahlatin",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "لِأَوَّلِ وَهْلَةٍ"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "從表面上看"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "cóng biǎomiàn shàng kàn",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "从表面上看"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "päällisin puolin"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "ensi katsomalta"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "ulkonaisesti"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "pintapuolisesti"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "en apparence"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "a priori"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "lichora",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "לִכְאוֹרָה"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "ránézésre"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "na pierwszy rzut oka"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "po-vídimomu",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "по-ви́димому"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "na pérvyj vzgljad",
          "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
          "word": "на пе́рвый взгляд"
        }
      ]
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  "word": "on the face of it"
}
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        "Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis."
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      "word": "at first glance"
    },
    {
      "word": "apparently"
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    {
      "word": "prima facie"
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    {
      "word": "ostensibly"
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    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "ʕalā mā yabduw",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "عَلَى مَا يَبْدُوْ"
    },
    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "liʔawwali wahlatin",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "لِأَوَّلِ وَهْلَةٍ"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "從表面上看"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "cóng biǎomiàn shàng kàn",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "从表面上看"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "päällisin puolin"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "ensi katsomalta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "ulkonaisesti"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "pintapuolisesti"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "en apparence"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "a priori"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "lichora",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "לִכְאוֹרָה"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "ránézésre"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "na pierwszy rzut oka"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "po-vídimomu",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "по-ви́димому"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "na pérvyj vzgljad",
      "sense": "as far as can be seen or determined",
      "word": "на пе́рвый взгляд"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the face of it"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.