Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To become visible.
  • intransitive verb To be shown or included.
  • intransitive verb To come into existence.
  • intransitive verb To give the impression of being in a certain way; seem.
  • intransitive verb To be likely or evident.
  • intransitive verb To come or perform before the public.
  • intransitive verb Law To present oneself formally before a court as defendant, plaintiff, or counsel.
  • intransitive verb To be published or made available to the public.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Appearance.
  • To come or be in sight; become visible by approach or by emerging from concealment; be exposed to view.
  • To stand in presence, as parties or advocates before a court; make appearance.
  • To come or be placed before the public; come to the notice of the public: as, the actor appeared only once a week; his history appeared in 1880.
  • To be obvious; be known, as a subject of observation or comprehension; be clear or made clear by evidence.
  • To seem; have a certain semblance or appearance; look: as, he appeared to be wise; it appears to me that this is unsafe; he appears very old.
  • . To be understood; be intelligible: as, “Do I now appear?” Cotgrave.
  • Synonyms

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
  • intransitive verb To come before the public.
  • intransitive verb To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like; to present one's self as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
  • intransitive verb To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
  • intransitive verb To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
  • noun obsolete Appearance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
  • verb intransitive To come before the public.
  • verb intransitive To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like; to present one's self as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
  • verb intransitive To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
  • verb intransitive, copulative To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb come into sight or view
  • verb be issued or published
  • verb give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect
  • verb come into being or existence, or appear on the scene
  • verb present oneself formally, as before a (judicial) authority
  • verb appear as a character on stage or appear in a play, etc.
  • verb seem to be true, probable, or apparent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aperen, from Old French aparoir, aper-, from Latin appārēre : ad-, ad- + pārēre, to show.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English apperen, aperen, from Old French aparoir (French apparoir, apparaître), from Latin apparēre ("to appear"), from ad ("to") + parēre ("come forth, to be visible").

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