"to all appearances" meaning in English

See to all appearances in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Forms: to all appearance [alternative], by all appearances [alternative], from all appearances [alternative]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} to all appearances, {{en-PP}} to all appearances
  1. So far as anyone can tell by observation; apparently. Synonyms: at first glance, at first sight, on the face of it, ostensibly
    Sense id: en-to_all_appearances-en-prep_phrase-k1N0MgaU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "to all appearance",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "by all appearances",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "from all appearances",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "to all appearances",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "to all appearances",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "So far as anyone can tell by observation; apparently."
      ],
      "id": "en-to_all_appearances-en-prep_phrase-k1N0MgaU",
      "links": [
        [
          "observation",
          "observation"
        ],
        [
          "apparently",
          "apparently"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "at first glance"
        },
        {
          "word": "at first sight"
        },
        {
          "word": "on the face of it"
        },
        {
          "word": "ostensibly"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "to all appearances"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "to all appearance",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "by all appearances",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "from all appearances",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "to all appearances",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "to all appearances",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "So far as anyone can tell by observation; apparently."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "observation",
          "observation"
        ],
        [
          "apparently",
          "apparently"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "at first glance"
    },
    {
      "word": "at first sight"
    },
    {
      "word": "on the face of it"
    },
    {
      "word": "ostensibly"
    }
  ],
  "word": "to all appearances"
}

Download raw JSONL data for to all appearances meaning in English (0.9kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). 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.