Meaning

10 senses

  1. (countable)The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.

    an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

  2. The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.

    (countable, uncountable)Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing when regarded as similar to that of another person or thing.

    picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing

  3. (countable, uncountable)Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing which is different from what the person or thing actually is; also, an outward appearance of a thing which does not actually exist.

  4. (countable)Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision.

  5. (countable)Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.

  6. (countable)Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something.

  7. (countable)A person's non-verbal behaviour or demeanour which shows their feelings, thoughts, etc., or which is faked to hide such true feelings, thoughts, etc.

  8. (countable, dated)In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.

  9. (archaic, uncountable)The quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity.

    Anschein

    подо́биеpodóbije, схо́дствоsxódstvo

  10. (obsolete, uncountable)The chance of something happening; likelihood, probability.

Examples

3 sentences

  1. Sleep is a semblance of death.

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  2. There is not even a semblance of proof.

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  3. The figures at Madame Tussauds are very lifelike, and appear to have no semblance of waxiness to them.

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Translations

5 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
quality or state of being similar — see also likeness, resemblance, similarity:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
quality or state of being similar — see also likeness, resemblance, similarity:

Origin

From Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; con

From Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; condition or fact of being apparent; symbolic image; facial expression, countenance; conduct, manner; image, likeness; analogy, comparison”), from Anglo-Norman semblaunce and Old French semblance (modern French semblance), from semblant, the present participle of sembler (“to appear; to resemble, seem”), from Late Latin similāre, the present active infinitive of similō, a variant of Latin simulō (“to act or behave as if; to imitate, simulate”), from similis (“like resembling, similar to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, semble + -ance (suffix forming nouns denoting conditions or states).

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Forms

plural: semblances

Synonyms

7 synonyms
portraitA2veneer
Close in meaning
  • an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading:glosscolorcolour
  • picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing:likeness
  • an erroneous mental representation:illusion

Word family

3 related words
Relatedresemblancesemblantsemble

Lessons for this word

1 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
semanticsemanticssemaphoresemensemesterA2semi
semblance — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto