Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Put forth or held out as real, actual, or intended; apparent; professed: as, a person's ostensible reason or motive for doing something.
- Capable of being shown; that may be shown; proper or intended to be shown.
Wiktionary
- adj. meant for open display; apparent
- adj. alleged, having an intention that is possibly but not obviously true
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. rare Capable of being shown; proper or intended to be shown.
- adj. Outwardly appearing to be; shown to be; exhibited; apparent; evident.
- adj. Declared; avowed; professed; pretended; -- often used as opposed to
real oractual .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. appearing as such but not necessarily so
- adj. represented or appearing as such; pretended.
Etymologies
- French, from Latin ostensus, past participle of ostendō ("show"), itself from obs- ("in front of") (akin to ob- ("in the way") and to Greek ἐπί (epi, "on, at, besides, after") and Old English eofot ("crime")) + tendō ("stretch") (Greek τείνω (teinō)) (Wiktionary)
- 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. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And none of the hedge fund geniuses think to actually pick up the phone and call the ostensible issuer of the notes just to check and see that the notes are real and Dreier is authorized to peddle them.”
“They have exercised the right to determine from the circumstances whether the ostensible was the real destination.”
The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine The European War, March 1915
“Philip, at whose request he had come, had charged him by no means to divulge the secret, as the King was anxious to have it believed that the ostensible was the only business which the prelate had to perform in the country.”
“Truth is, the titular subject is entirely ostensible, which is both the film's charm and its greatest limitation," writes”
“I say, "ostensible," because, in fact, the paramilitaries have rarely fought guerrillas themselves, but rather, have targeted civilians struggling peacefully for social change - for example, trade unionists, peasant leaders, teachers and Catholic priests advocating for the poor.”
“That alone would make it a collector's item, but it's particularly notable because the ostensible premise of Nabokov's best-known novel ( "ostensible" because Lolita is not simply about an older man's affair with a preteenage girl) caused a scandal that kept the book itself from finding an American publisher for nearly three more years.”
“As for the Kols, what Dalton says about the Mundas (194) not only indicates that parental interference is more than "ostensible," but makes clear that what these girls enjoy is not free choice but what is euphemistically called "free love," before marriage:”
“By these we mean the introducing houses, such as ostensible millinery establishments and the like in fashionable but retired streets, where ladies meet their lovers.”
“[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.”
“[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).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ostensible’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Verbal_Advantage
paraphrase, ostensible, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 38 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2042 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 202 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Vocabulary
shibboleth, verboten, jejune, ostensible, multifarious, quintessence, purportedly, tangential, vacillate, quagmire, wanton, onerous and 74 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1522 more...
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Go over
mollify, obstinate, obviate, occlude, onerous, obscure, paragon, pedantic, perfunctory, placate, placid, prodigal and 364 more...
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Wicked Cool Words
These words have been posted on my vocabulary tumblr, wickedcoolwords.tumblr.com!
miasma, libation, laconic, denigrating, deontic, accinge, liquescent, quagmire, exiguous, dirigible, lambasted, lambaste and 89 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Verba Silvestria
Words of the Woods or Words of the Wilds
sylvestral, sylvester, silvester, silvestrian, sylvestrian, silvatic, sylvatic, silvan, sylvan, silva, sylva, nemorose and 108 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ostensible.

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