Loading page
say it: SUR-fuhs
surface is a noun, verb and adjective meaning "the outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer constituting or resembling such a boundary". It is pronounced /ˈsɝfəs/ — SUR-fuhs. It carries 10 recorded senses.
the outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer constituting or resembling such a boundary
“there is a special cleaner for these surfaces”
“the cloth had a pattern of red dots on a white surface”
the extended two-dimensional outer boundary of a three-dimensional object
“they skimmed over the surface of the water”
“a brush small enough to clean every dental surface”
“the sun has no distinct surface”
the outermost level of the land or sea
“earthquakes originate far below the surface”
“three quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water”
a superficial aspect as opposed to the real nature of something
“it was not what it appeared to be on the surface”
information that has become public
“all the reports were out in the open”
“the facts had been brought to the surface”
a device that provides reactive force when in motion relative to the surrounding air; can lift or control a plane in flight
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for surface come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.