ostensibly

English

WOTD – 5 April 2007

Etymology

ostensible +‎ -ly, from French ostensible, from Latin ostēnsus, past participle of ostendō (“I show”), from ob (“before”) + tendō (“I stretch out”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɒˈstɛn.sɪ.bli/ or /ɒˈstɛn.sə.bli/
• IPA^(key): /ɑːˈstɛn.sə.bli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

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• Hyphenation: os‧ten‧si‧bly

Adverb

ostensibly (not comparable)

1. (modal) Seemingly, apparently, on the surface.

   Synonyms: apparently, arguably, at first blush, seemingly

   • 1889, Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee, Dictionary of national biography

     On 13 June the peshwa signed a new treaty, ostensibly complying with the demands of the British government...

   • 1905, Upton Sinclair, chapter IX, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC:

     Up to a year or two ago it had been the custom to kill horses in the yards — ostensibly for fertilizer...

   • 2007, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Sandworms of Dune

     People strive to achieve perfection — ostensibly an honorable goal — but complete perfection is dangerous. To be imperfect, but human, is far preferable.

   • 2007 April 10, "Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?," The New York Times (retrieved 18 September 2015):

     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."

Related terms

• ostensive

Translations

ostensibly

• Czech: zdánlivě
• Dutch: ogenschijnlijk (nl), op het eerste gezicht, schijnbaar (nl)
• Finnish: näennäisesti
• French: ostensiblement (fr), soi-disant (fr), en apparence (fr)
• German: vorgeblich (de), offenbar (de), offensichtlich (de), anscheinend (de)
• Greek: φαινομενικά (el) (fainomeniká), δήθεν (el) (díthen), κατ' επίφαση (kat' epífasi)
• Irish: de réir cosúlachta, de réir dealraimh
• Japanese: うわべは (uwabe wa), 表向きは (omotemuki wa)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tilsynelatende

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Persian: به ظاهر
• Polish: pozornie (pl)
• Portuguese: ostensivamente (pt) f
• Russian: я́кобы (ru) (jákoby), вроде как (vrode kak) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: то̀боже

  Roman: tòbože (sh)

• Spanish: ostensiblemente (es)
• Swedish: skenbart (sv), till synes (sv)