semblance

Meanings

1. The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
2. Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing when regarded as similar to that of another person or thing.
3. Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing which is different from what the person or thing actually is; also, an outward appearance of a thing which does not actually exist.
4. Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision.
5. Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.
6. Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something.
7. A person's non-verbal behaviour or demeanour which shows their feelings, thoughts, etc., or which is faked to hide such true feelings, thoughts, etc.
8. In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.
9. The quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity.
10. The chance of something happening; likelihood, probability.

Etymology

From Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; condition or fact of being apparent; symbolic image; facial expression, countenance; conduct, manner; image, likeness; analogy, comparison”), from Anglo-Norman semblaunce and Old French semblance (modern French semblance), from semblant, the present participle of sembler (“to appear; to resemble, seem”), from Late Latin similāre, the present active infinitive of similō, a variant of Latin simulō (“to act or behave as if; to imitate, simulate”), from similis (“like resembling, similar to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, semble + -ance (suffix forming nouns denoting conditions or states).

Translations