"ostensibly" meaning in English

See ostensibly in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adverb

IPA: /ɒˈstɛn.sɪ.bli/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ɒˈstɛn.sə.bli/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ɑːˈstɛn.sə.bli/ [US] Audio: en-us-ostensibly.ogg [US], en-au-ostensibly.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From ostensible + -ly. Etymology templates: {{suf|en|ostensible|ly|id2=adverbial}} ostensible + -ly Head templates: {{en-adv|-}} ostensibly (not comparable)
  1. (modal) Seemingly, apparently, on the surface. Tags: modal, not-comparable Related terms: ostensive Translations (ostensibly): привидно (prividno) (Bulgarian), уж (už) (Bulgarian), ostensiblement (Catalan), zdánlivě (Czech), ogenschijnlijk (Dutch), op het eerste gezicht (Dutch), schijnbaar (Dutch), ŝajne (Esperanto), näennäisesti (Finnish), ostensiblement (French), soi-disant (French), en apparence (French), vorgeblich (German), offenbar (German), offensichtlich (German), anscheinend (German), φαινομενικά (fainomeniká) (Greek), δήθεν (díthen) (Greek), κατ' επίφαση (kat' epífasi) (Greek), de réir cosúlachta (Irish), de réir dealraimh (Irish), うわべは (uwabe wa) (Japanese), 表向きは (omotemuki wa) (Japanese), tilsynelatende (Norwegian Bokmål), به ظاهر (Persian), pozornie (Polish), ostensivamente [feminine] (Portuguese), я́кобы (jákoby) (Russian), вроде как (vrode kak) [colloquial] (Russian), то̀боже [Cyrillic] (Serbo-Croatian), tòbože [Roman] (Serbo-Croatian), ostensiblemente (Spanish), skenbart (Swedish), till synes (Swedish)

Download JSON data for ostensibly meaning in English (7.7kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "actually"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ostensible",
        "3": "ly",
        "id2": "adverbial"
      },
      "expansion": "ostensible + -ly",
      "name": "suf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ostensible + -ly.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "ostensibly (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "os‧ten‧si‧bly"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English hedges",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ly (adverbial)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1889, Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee, Dictionary of National Biography",
          "text": "On 13 June the peshwa signed a new treaty, ostensibly complying with the demands of the British government[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Sandworms of Dune",
          "text": "People strive to achieve perfection — ostensibly an honorable goal — but complete perfection is dangerous. To be imperfect, but human, is far preferable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 April 10, “Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2015-09-18",
          "text": "Mr. Marwan’s story — a tale overflowing with the suspense and ruthless duplicity of a spy novel — began to take shape in the spring of 1969. He had come to London, ostensibly to consult a Harley Street doctor about a stomach ailment. He chose to be examined by a doctor whose offices had been used previously for a covert meeting between King Hussein of Jordan and the general director of the Israeli prime minister’s office.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 42",
          "text": "Quite possibly the worst aspect of this is the role of the train operating companies and their representative body, the ineptly named Rail Delivery Group (RDG). Ostensibly, the plan has come from them. In reality, this has been driven entirely by Government, which asked each train operator to draw up plans for its area.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Seemingly, apparently, on the surface."
      ],
      "id": "en-ostensibly-en-adv-VxA6W0el",
      "links": [
        [
          "Seemingly",
          "seemingly"
        ],
        [
          "apparently",
          "apparently"
        ],
        [
          "on the surface",
          "on the surface"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(modal) Seemingly, apparently, on the surface."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "ostensive"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "apparently"
        },
        {
          "word": "arguably"
        },
        {
          "word": "at first blush"
        },
        {
          "word": "seemingly"
        },
        {
          "word": "ostensibly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "apparently"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "at first blush"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "at first glance"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "at first sight"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "on the face of it"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "on the surface"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "ostensibly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "outwardly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "topics": [
            "legal",
            "law"
          ],
          "word": "prima facie"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "seemingly"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "superficially"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "nonstandard"
          ],
          "word": "surfacely"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
          "word": "to all appearances"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "modal",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "prividno",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "привидно"
        },
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "už",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "уж"
        },
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "ostensiblement"
        },
        {
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "zdánlivě"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "ogenschijnlijk"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "op het eerste gezicht"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "schijnbaar"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "ŝajne"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "näennäisesti"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "ostensiblement"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "soi-disant"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "en apparence"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "vorgeblich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "offenbar"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "offensichtlich"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "anscheinend"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "fainomeniká",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "φαινομενικά"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "díthen",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "δήθεν"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "kat' epífasi",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "κατ' επίφαση"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "de réir cosúlachta"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "de réir dealraimh"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "uwabe wa",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "うわべは"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "omotemuki wa",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "表向きは"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "tilsynelatende"
        },
        {
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "به ظاهر"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "pozornie"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ostensivamente"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "jákoby",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "я́кобы"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vrode kak",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "colloquial"
          ],
          "word": "вроде как"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "Cyrillic"
          ],
          "word": "то̀боже"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "tags": [
            "Roman"
          ],
          "word": "tòbože"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "ostensiblemente"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "skenbart"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "ostensibly",
          "word": "till synes"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɒˈstɛn.sɪ.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɒˈstɛn.sə.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɑːˈstɛn.sə.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ostensibly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/46/En-us-ostensibly.ogg/En-us-ostensibly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/En-us-ostensibly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-ostensibly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8f/En-au-ostensibly.ogg/En-au-ostensibly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/En-au-ostensibly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ostensibly"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "actually"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ostensible",
        "3": "ly",
        "id2": "adverbial"
      },
      "expansion": "ostensible + -ly",
      "name": "suf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ostensible + -ly.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "ostensibly (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "os‧ten‧si‧bly"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ostensive"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English 4-syllable words",
        "English adverbs",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English hedges",
        "English lemmas",
        "English modal adverbs",
        "English terms suffixed with -ly (adverbial)",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adverbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1889, Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee, Dictionary of National Biography",
          "text": "On 13 June the peshwa signed a new treaty, ostensibly complying with the demands of the British government[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Sandworms of Dune",
          "text": "People strive to achieve perfection — ostensibly an honorable goal — but complete perfection is dangerous. To be imperfect, but human, is far preferable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 April 10, “Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2015-09-18",
          "text": "Mr. Marwan’s story — a tale overflowing with the suspense and ruthless duplicity of a spy novel — began to take shape in the spring of 1969. He had come to London, ostensibly to consult a Harley Street doctor about a stomach ailment. He chose to be examined by a doctor whose offices had been used previously for a covert meeting between King Hussein of Jordan and the general director of the Israeli prime minister’s office.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 42",
          "text": "Quite possibly the worst aspect of this is the role of the train operating companies and their representative body, the ineptly named Rail Delivery Group (RDG). Ostensibly, the plan has come from them. In reality, this has been driven entirely by Government, which asked each train operator to draw up plans for its area.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Seemingly, apparently, on the surface."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Seemingly",
          "seemingly"
        ],
        [
          "apparently",
          "apparently"
        ],
        [
          "on the surface",
          "on the surface"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(modal) Seemingly, apparently, on the surface."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "apparently"
        },
        {
          "word": "arguably"
        },
        {
          "word": "at first blush"
        },
        {
          "word": "seemingly"
        },
        {
          "word": "ostensibly"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "modal",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɒˈstɛn.sɪ.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɒˈstɛn.sə.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɑːˈstɛn.sə.bli/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ostensibly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/46/En-us-ostensibly.ogg/En-us-ostensibly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/En-us-ostensibly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-ostensibly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8f/En-au-ostensibly.ogg/En-au-ostensibly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/En-au-ostensibly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "apparently"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "at first blush"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "at first glance"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "at first sight"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "on the face of it"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "on the surface"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "ostensibly"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "outwardly"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "topics": [
        "legal",
        "law"
      ],
      "word": "prima facie"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "seemingly"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "superficially"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "nonstandard"
      ],
      "word": "surfacely"
    },
    {
      "source": "Thesaurus:ostensibly",
      "word": "to all appearances"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "prividno",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "привидно"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "už",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "уж"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "ostensiblement"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "zdánlivě"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "ogenschijnlijk"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "op het eerste gezicht"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "schijnbaar"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "ŝajne"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "näennäisesti"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "ostensiblement"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "soi-disant"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "en apparence"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "vorgeblich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "offenbar"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "offensichtlich"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "anscheinend"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "fainomeniká",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "φαινομενικά"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "díthen",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "δήθεν"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "kat' epífasi",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "κατ' επίφαση"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "de réir cosúlachta"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "de réir dealraimh"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "uwabe wa",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "うわべは"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "omotemuki wa",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "表向きは"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "tilsynelatende"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "به ظاهر"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "pozornie"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ostensivamente"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "jákoby",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "я́кобы"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vrode kak",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "word": "вроде как"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic"
      ],
      "word": "то̀боже"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "tags": [
        "Roman"
      ],
      "word": "tòbože"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "ostensiblemente"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "skenbart"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "ostensibly",
      "word": "till synes"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ostensibly"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.