ostensibly

1. 1.

   from appearances alone

   “irrigation often produces bumper crops from apparently desert land”

   “the child is seemingly healthy but the doctor is concerned”

   “had been ostensibly frank as to his purpose while really concealing it”

   “on the face of it the problem seems minor”

   Synonymsapparentlyseeminglyon the face of it

Questions about ostensibly

What does ostensibly mean?

ostensibly means "from appearances alone".

How many syllables are in ostensibly?

ostensibly has 4 syllables: o-sten-si-bly. The stress falls on "sten". In IPA it is /ɑˈstɛnsəbli/.

What is another word for ostensibly?

Close synonyms include apparently, seemingly, on the face of it. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ostensibly a common word?

ostensibly is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.