Dictionaries › English

ostensible

Pronunciation: /ɒˈstɛns.ɪ.bəl/

The English word “ostensible” has 2 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Apparent, evident; meant for open display.
  2. Appearing as such; being such in appearance; professed, supposed (rather than demonstrably true or real).

Etymology

Borrowed from French ostensible, formed with the suffix -ible, from Latin ostensus, the past participle of ostendō (“show”), itself from obs- (“in front of”) (akin to ob- (“in the way”)) + tendō (“stretch”) (akin to Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō)). Cf. ostentatious.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “ostensible” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.