Ostensible
adjective
Appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
They discussed the ostensible reasons for his resignation, suspecting an underlying issue.
Often appears as...
- ostensible reason
- ostensible purpose
adjective
Stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
Her ostensible innocence was eventually proved wrong in the court.
Often appears as...
- ostensible innocence
- ostensible truth
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Academic
adjective
Appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
They discussed the ostensible reasons for his resignation, suspecting an underlying issue.
Often appears as...
- ostensible reason
- ostensible purpose
adjective
Stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
Her ostensible innocence was eventually proved wrong in the court.
Often appears as...
- ostensible innocence
- ostensible truth
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Academic
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Hidden Reality
Use 'ostensible' to suggest there's more than meets the eye.
His ostensible joy hid a deep sadness.
Pro Tip 2/3Surface Level
'Ostensible' refers to what seems visible, not proven truth.
The ostensible harmony in the team was misleading.
Pro Tip 3/3Doubt and Uncertainty
Use it when you want to express doubt about a stated reason or fact.
She left for ostensible health reasons, but we were skeptical.
Pro Tip 1/3Hidden Reality
Use 'ostensible' to suggest there's more than meets the eye.
His ostensible joy hid a deep sadness.
Pro Tip 2/3Surface Level
'Ostensible' refers to what seems visible, not proven truth.
The ostensible harmony in the team was misleading.
Pro Tip 3/3Doubt and Uncertainty
Use it when you want to express doubt about a stated reason or fact.
She left for ostensible health reasons, but we were skeptical.
Pro Tip 1/3Hidden Reality
Use 'ostensible' to suggest there's more than meets the eye.
His ostensible joy hid a deep sadness.
Pro Tip 2/3Surface Level
'Ostensible' refers to what seems visible, not proven truth.
The ostensible harmony in the team was misleading.
Pro Tip 3/3Doubt and Uncertainty
Use it when you want to express doubt about a stated reason or fact.
She left for ostensible health reasons, but we were skeptical.
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Video examples
My love letter to...
Now ostensibly, cosplay means people who dress up as their favorite characters from film and television and especially anime, but it is so much more than that. These aren't just people who find a costume and put it on -- they mash them up. They bend them to their will. They change them to be the characters they want to be in those productions.
Video examples
Chimamanda Ngozi...
I thought about naming the hotel, but I thought I probably shouldn't. And a guard at the entrance stopped me and asked me annoying questions, because their automatic assumption is that a Nigerian female walking into a hotel alone is a sex worker. And by the way, why do these hotels focus on the ostensible supply
Video examples
Jim Toomey: Learning...
who gets a fortune that he's about to get caught by a trawler, which he does. And then he dies. He gets finned, and then he gets thrown overboard. Ostensibly, he's dead now. And so I killed a character that's been in the newspaper for 15 years. So I got a lot of reader feedback on that one.
Video examples
Are the illuminati real?...
While a public ban on something ostensibly secret might seem difficult to enforce, in this case it worked. Only nine years after its founding, the group dissolved, their records were seized, and Weishaupt forced into exile. The Illuminati would become more notorious in their afterlife
Video examples
A better way to talk...
Here we are using the same word to talk about love that we use to explain a plague of locusts. Right? So, how did this happen? How have we come to associate love with great pain and suffering? And why do we talk about this ostensibly good experience as if we are victims?
Video examples
Pico Iyer: A Portable...
Angeles Airport as an adult ostensibly at altar for two weeks and so it set all kinds of habits loose in me but I think one of the main ones was being very comfortable in the process of travel and maybe not so good at settling down in any community but certainly
Video examples
How I accidentally...
staring down that metaphorical anonymized bookstore, and having read nothing but bad scripts for months. And I took this to mean one of two either I was not very good at my job, which was, ostensibly, finding good scripts, or reading bad scripts was the job.
Video examples
Drew Curtis: How I beat...
and that was that in the mainstream media world there is only one definition for news release, and it turns out that is press release -- as in P.R. Now my company, Fark, deals with news, ostensibly, and as a result we were not in violation of this patent.
Video examples
The deadly genius of...
the other half was actually marching in support of the criminal organization and its now-presumed-defunct leader. Shocked, the mayor decided to step aside rather than participate or lead a procession that was ostensibly in support of organized crime.
Video examples
Fashion that celebrates...
Ostensibly, I stand before you as a mere maker of clothing, but within the folds of ancient fabrics and modern textiles, I have found a higher calling. Through my work as a designer, I've discovered the importance of providing representation
Video examples
My love letter to...
Now ostensibly, cosplay means people who dress up as their favorite characters from film and television and especially anime, but it is so much more than that. These aren't just people who find a costume and put it on -- they mash them up. They bend them to their will. They change them to be the characters they want to be in those productions.
Video examples
Chimamanda Ngozi...
I thought about naming the hotel, but I thought I probably shouldn't. And a guard at the entrance stopped me and asked me annoying questions, because their automatic assumption is that a Nigerian female walking into a hotel alone is a sex worker. And by the way, why do these hotels focus on the ostensible supply
Video examples
Jim Toomey: Learning...
who gets a fortune that he's about to get caught by a trawler, which he does. And then he dies. He gets finned, and then he gets thrown overboard. Ostensibly, he's dead now. And so I killed a character that's been in the newspaper for 15 years. So I got a lot of reader feedback on that one.
Video examples
Are the illuminati real?...
While a public ban on something ostensibly secret might seem difficult to enforce, in this case it worked. Only nine years after its founding, the group dissolved, their records were seized, and Weishaupt forced into exile. The Illuminati would become more notorious in their afterlife
Video examples
A better way to talk...
Here we are using the same word to talk about love that we use to explain a plague of locusts. Right? So, how did this happen? How have we come to associate love with great pain and suffering? And why do we talk about this ostensibly good experience as if we are victims?
Video examples
Pico Iyer: A Portable...
Angeles Airport as an adult ostensibly at altar for two weeks and so it set all kinds of habits loose in me but I think one of the main ones was being very comfortable in the process of travel and maybe not so good at settling down in any community but certainly
Video examples
How I accidentally...
staring down that metaphorical anonymized bookstore, and having read nothing but bad scripts for months. And I took this to mean one of two either I was not very good at my job, which was, ostensibly, finding good scripts, or reading bad scripts was the job.
Video examples
Drew Curtis: How I beat...
and that was that in the mainstream media world there is only one definition for news release, and it turns out that is press release -- as in P.R. Now my company, Fark, deals with news, ostensibly, and as a result we were not in violation of this patent.
Video examples
The deadly genius of...
the other half was actually marching in support of the criminal organization and its now-presumed-defunct leader. Shocked, the mayor decided to step aside rather than participate or lead a procession that was ostensibly in support of organized crime.
Video examples
Fashion that celebrates...
Ostensibly, I stand before you as a mere maker of clothing, but within the folds of ancient fabrics and modern textiles, I have found a higher calling. Through my work as a designer, I've discovered the importance of providing representation
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
James Gleick
American Author
Alphabetical order had to be invented to help people organize the first dictionaries. On the other hand, we may have reached a point where alphabetical order has gone obsolete. Wikipedia is ostensibly in alphabetical order, but, when you think about it, it's not in any order at all. You use a search engine to get into it.
Quote examples
Lois Greenfield
American Photographer
The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer's movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture.
Quote examples
Brianna Wu
American Businesswoman
Gamergate is ostensibly about journalistic ethics. Supporters say they want to address conflicts of interest between the people that make games and the people that support them. In reality, Gamergate is a group of gamers that are willing to destroy the women who have invaded their clubhouse.
Quote examples
Richard Attenborough
English Actor
I adore my family; they are my joy. However, I am committed to my work. If, on a Saturday morning when I was ostensibly going to be with the children, and something arose at RADA or at UNICEF or at the orphanage or whatever, I would allow the other pressures to take precedent.
Quote examples
Maggie Gallagher
American Writer
In today's world, marketers reach inside the home and attempt to figure out not what's good for your daughter, because that is not their business, but what deep desires they can manipulate, stimulate and ostensibly satisfy in order to produce cold, hard cash.
Quote examples
Moby
American Musician
What fascinates me about addiction and obsessive behavior is that people would choose an altered state of consciousness that's toxic and ostensibly destroys most aspects of your normal life, because for a brief moment you feel okay.
Quote examples
Kate Christensen
American Novelist
I have observed, through many years of living in north Brooklyn, that people, for example an ostensible group of friends, can be dangerous to one another.
Quote examples
Theodore Roosevelt
American President
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
Quote examples
Henry Knox
American Soldier
That taxes may be the ostensible cause is true, but that they are the true cause is as far remote from truth as light from darkness.
Quote examples
Tom Fitton
American Activist
In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story.
Quote examples
James Gleick
American Author
Alphabetical order had to be invented to help people organize the first dictionaries. On the other hand, we may have reached a point where alphabetical order has gone obsolete. Wikipedia is ostensibly in alphabetical order, but, when you think about it, it's not in any order at all. You use a search engine to get into it.
Quote examples
Lois Greenfield
American Photographer
The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer's movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture.
Quote examples
Brianna Wu
American Businesswoman
Gamergate is ostensibly about journalistic ethics. Supporters say they want to address conflicts of interest between the people that make games and the people that support them. In reality, Gamergate is a group of gamers that are willing to destroy the women who have invaded their clubhouse.
Quote examples
Richard Attenborough
English Actor
I adore my family; they are my joy. However, I am committed to my work. If, on a Saturday morning when I was ostensibly going to be with the children, and something arose at RADA or at UNICEF or at the orphanage or whatever, I would allow the other pressures to take precedent.
Quote examples
Maggie Gallagher
American Writer
In today's world, marketers reach inside the home and attempt to figure out not what's good for your daughter, because that is not their business, but what deep desires they can manipulate, stimulate and ostensibly satisfy in order to produce cold, hard cash.
Quote examples
Moby
American Musician
What fascinates me about addiction and obsessive behavior is that people would choose an altered state of consciousness that's toxic and ostensibly destroys most aspects of your normal life, because for a brief moment you feel okay.
Quote examples
Kate Christensen
American Novelist
I have observed, through many years of living in north Brooklyn, that people, for example an ostensible group of friends, can be dangerous to one another.
Quote examples
Theodore Roosevelt
American President
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
Quote examples
Henry Knox
American Soldier
That taxes may be the ostensible cause is true, but that they are the true cause is as far remote from truth as light from darkness.
Quote examples
Tom Fitton
American Activist
In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story.
Example 1 of 10
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