semblance means the outward appearance or form of a person or thing. It carries an Arena rating of 1520, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, semblance ranks #3,981 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #4,255 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,437 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,920 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
semblance is pronounced /ˈsɛmblən(t)s/.
Why “semblance” is a great word
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing, which may or may not correspond to the underlying reality. From Middle English semblaunce, from Anglo-Norman and Old French semblance (from semblant, present participle of sembler 'to appear, seem'), from Late Latin similāre (to imitate, simulate), from Latin similis (like, similar) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Unlike 'essence,' which is the fundamental and intrinsic nature of a thing, or 'reality,' which denotes the state of things as they actually are, semblance is the skin of the possible, the performed expression, the curated facade. It is the polite smile masking grief, the neat front garden of a house in disarray, and the tranquil surface of a deeply troubled lake—a fragile architecture of appearances we build so the world won't see us shiver.
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).
noun
- The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
- The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.; Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing when regarded as similar to that of another person or thing.
- The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.; 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.
- Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision.
- Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.
- Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something.
- 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.
- In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.
- The quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity.
- The chance of something happening; likelihood, probability.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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