ostensible

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In some, the ostensible issues were cover for the real struggle.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adjective Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • With goals from Danny Welbeck (18), Nani (22), and Darron Gibson (21), United look fully capable of remaining both a domestic and international threat for the ostensible future. —  Soccer Blogs - latest posts
  • The relationship between Cornley and his fans is ostensible, and the captain shows no qualms about his gratitude. —  The Daily Collegian Online - News
  • [10] Also, it does state Tascón's intention for publicly posting the list (although it expresses doubt that this was the real reason, saying this was the "ostensible" reason). —  Venezuela Analysis
  • I advisedly use the word "ostensible," because the main purport and intention of the article were not at all to criticise a philosophy, but to sully the reputation of the philosopher, deprive him of public confidence, ridicule and misrepresent his labors, hold him up by name to public obloquy and contempt, destroy or lessen the circulation of his books, and, in general, to blacken and break down his literary reputation by any and every means, even to the extent of aspersing his personal reputation, although there had never been the slightest personal collision. —  A Public Appeal for Redress to the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard University Professor Royce's Libel
  • If the Pervasor sets the Judge's official staff (officium) at defiance, on the report of the Judge our Sajones will make him feel the weight of the royal vengeance who refused to obey the [humbler] Cognitor Footnote 608: 'Praedia urbana vel rustica Footnote 609: The punishment consisted in loss of all claim to the property--which was generally seized by someone who had some kind of ostensible claim to it--and a penalty of equal value with that of the property wrongfully seized II. —  The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Medieval Latin ostēnsibilis, from Latin ostēnsus, past participle of ostendere, to show : ob-, ob- + tendere, to stretch; see ten- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French ostensible = Spanish ostensible = Portuguese ostensivel = Italian ostensibile, from Middle Latin ostensibilis, that can be shown or seen, from Latin ostendere, past participle ostensus, ostentus, show, exhibit: see ostend.
 

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/ɑsˈtɛnsɪbl/
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