ostensible

adjective

os·​ten·​si·​ble ä-ˈsten(t)-sə-bəl 

ə-

1

: intended for display : open to view

2

: being such in appearance : plausible rather than demonstrably true or real

the ostensible purpose for the trip

Did you know?

Ostensible comes from Latin ostendere, meaning "to show," and the word suggests a discrepancy between a declared or implied aim or reason and the true one.

Synonyms

• apparent
• assumed
• evident
• ostensive
• presumed
• prima facie
• putative
• reputed
• seeming
• supposed

Choose the Right Synonym for ostensible

apparent, illusory, seeming, ostensible mean not actually being what appearance indicates.

apparent suggests appearance to unaided senses that may or may not be borne out by more rigorous examination or greater knowledge.

the apparent cause of the accident

illusory implies a false impression based on deceptive resemblance or faulty observation, or influenced by emotions that prevent a clear view.

an illusory sense of security

seeming implies a character in the thing observed that gives it the appearance, sometimes through intent, of something else.

the seeming simplicity of the story

ostensible suggests a discrepancy between an openly declared or naturally implied aim or reason and the true one.

the ostensible reason for their visit

Examples of ostensible in a Sentence

That intelligence and those facts, of course, all pertained to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, the war's ostensible casus belli, which we now know did not exist. —Frank Rich, New York Review, 6 Apr. 2006

To listen again to "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"—probably the most relentlessly cheerful song ever written on the ostensible theme of misery—is at once to admire its delicately judged textures and Swiss-watch precision … —Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books, 15 Dec. 2005

Its ostensible subject is America's murderous gun culture. Its real subject, of course, is the ravenous ego of its director-star, Michael Moore. —Scott Berg, Time, 14 July 2003

It's a snarky, glory-thieving place, the world of big-bucks political fund raising. Ostensible grownups can be reduced to screaming toddlers over who gets the credit for bringing in a major donor's gift … —Viveca Novak, Time, 14 June 1999

the ostensible reason for the meeting turned out to be a trick to get him to the surprise party

Recent Examples on the Web

This last-minute casting shift delighted Williamson, who’d been influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, in which Janet Leigh — introduced as the ostensible star of the film — is killed off early on. —Jordan Runtagh, People.com, 1 Nov. 2024

The film’s loose and laid-back structure is accentuated by the contrast provided by the ostensible strictness of its setting: A Christian school for girls. —Kambole Campbell, IndieWire, 30 Oct. 2024

New York Indiana understood that romantic obsession is timeless, a perpetual coil that revolves around itself only to be severed because its ostensible focus is an individual in a particular time and place. —Daniel Felsenthal, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2024

That included negotiating with his ostensible opponent, the leadership of the United Farm Workers, to jointly pressure policymakers to make effective immigration policy. —Eli Hager, ProPublica, 25 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin ostensibilis "perceptible, visible, capable of demonstration," from Latin ostensus, variant of ostentus, past participle of ostendere "to hold out for inspection, show, make clear by one's actions, demonstrate" (from os-, assimilated variant of obs-, variant of ob- "toward, facing, against" + tendere "to extend outward, stretch, spread out") + -bilis "capable (of acting) or worthy (of being acted upon)" — more at ob-, tender entry 3, -able

Note: Scattered attestations of the Latin word, usually in the form ostensible as a predicate adjective, can be found from Duns Scotus to the eighteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, attributes the English word to French, though among vernaculars ostensible is more common in Italian in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

First Known Use

circa 1771, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

ostensible

adjective

os·​ten·​si·​ble ä-ˈsten(t)-sə-bəl 

ə-

: shown outwardly : apparent

the ostensible purpose of his visit