Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Seeming or professed; ostensible.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Showing; betokening.
- Setting forth a general principle by virtue of which a proposition must be true. The old logicians supposed all strict proof to be either of this nature or else apagogic.
Wiktionary
- adj. Apparently true, but not necessarily; ostensible
- adj. Clearly demonstrative.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Showing; exhibiting.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. represented or appearing as such; pretended.
- adj. manifestly demonstrative
Etymologies
- From French ostensif, from Medieval Latin ostensivus (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin ostēnsīvus, from Latin ostēnsus, past participle of ostendere, to show; see ostensible. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Therefore we can not tolerate such an ostensive rejection of western civilization, and its key values.”
“The free traders gave it away for the ostensive reason of access to a billion new customers in China.”
“The Chinese fueled Clinton's apparent economic success, not the ostensive 'sound' economic policies Clinton practiced.”
“We might try this ostensive definition: it is the culture, mental framework, and social reality of the world created by the industrial revolution, mass society, urban life, and mass literacy and communication.”
“As for the potted history of post-revolutionary France, it is, for all its ostensive authority, an attempt to justify the means by the end.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“GT 2006-08-31: Well, thank God #6: Raed Jarrar and ostensive definitions”
“Something similar occurs with ostensive definitions.”
“We can teach a boy a term, say ˜meter™, by giving the ostensive definition”
“A dictionary may offer ostensive definitions of some words”
“Definitions sought by philosophers are of neither of these kinds, dictionary or ostensive.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ostensive’.
-
NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
-
adj. + adv.
vainglorious, lanuginous, altiloquent, ambisextrous, desiderative, flothery, liquescent, logoed, autotelic, tropology, erotogenic, crocky and 108 more...
-
Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
-
newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
-
1st cut
abeyance, abscission, abyss, accretion, acidulous, adulterate, adumbrate, aerie, ameliorate, anachoronistic, analgesia, anodyne and 315 more...
-
my words
interminable, effete, convocation, philistines, malaise, foibles, deputation, anathematized, morass, stalwart, proselytize, abet and 405 more...
-
zachg's Words
verisimilitude, phenomenology, polyvalent, aleatoric, ontology, epistemology, solipsism, monad, hermeneutic, heuristic, performative, constative and 142 more...
-
conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
-
Fancy Talk
Fancy words with interesting shapes.
dulcet, vitiate, ostensive, acerbic, revolting, viviparous, lecherous, ordure, dolichocephalic, propitiate, derision, bacchanalian and 4 more...
-
Manhattan Advanced 5
nettle, nadir, pare, modish, molt, militate, mirth, milieu, manifest, mendicant, meretricious, missive and 49 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ostensive.
qroqqa In linguistics or philosophy, an ostensive definition is one made by pointing something out: 'That's an okapi.' Aug 7, 2008