appearance

Meaning

Noun

• The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye.
• A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition.
• The way something looks; personal presence
• Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others.
• That which is not substance, essence, hypostasis; the outward reality as opposed to the underlying reality
• The act of appearing in a particular place, or in society, a company, or any proceedings; a coming before the public in a particular character.
• An instance of someone coming into a court of law to be part of a trial, either in person or represented by an attorney or such like; a court appearance
• Chiefly used by nurses: the act of defecation by a patient.

Related

Similar words

• arrival, manifestation,
• spectacle, apparition, phenomenon, presence
• aspect, air, figure, look, manner, mien
• semblance, show, pretense, façade or facade
• debut

Opposite words

• non-appearance, nonappearance

Origin

• Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo.
• Displaced native Middle English wlite ("appearance").
• Morphologically appear + -ance.