semblance

English

Alternative forms

• semblaunce

Etymology

From Middle English semblaunce, from Old French semblance, from semblant, present participle of sembler.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛm.bləns/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

semblance (countable and uncountable, plural semblances)

1. A likeness, a similarity; the quality of being similar.
2. The way something looks or appears; an appearance; a form.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2:

     England, seated far north in the turbid sea, now visits my dreams in the semblance of a vast and well-manned ship, which mastered the winds and rode proudly over the waves.

Synonyms

• (likeness): veneer

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sem- (0 c, 81 e)

Translations

likeness, similarity

• Bulgarian: сходство (bg) n (shodstvo), подобие (bg) n (podobie)
• Dutch: gelijkheid (nl)
• Finnish: ulkonäkö (fi)
• German: Anschein (de) m
• Hebrew: דמיון (he) m (dimyón)
• Irish: amhlachas m
• Italian: sembianza (it) f, parvenza (it), apparenza (it) f
• Latin: effigiēs f
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: амал (amal)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: likhet (no) m

• Plautdietsch: Änlichkjeit f
• Portuguese: semelhança (pt) f
• Romanian: asemănare (ro) f, similitudine (ro) f
• Russian: схо́дство (ru) n (sxódstvo), подо́бие (ru) n (podóbije)
• Scottish Gaelic: coltas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сли̏чно̄ст f, и̏згле̄д m

  Roman: slȉčnōst (sh) f, ȉzglēd m

• Spanish: semejanza (es) f, semblanza (es) f (disused), parecido (es) m, apariencia (es) f
• Swedish: likhet (sv) c

Further reading

• “semblance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “semblance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “semblance”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.