semblance
/ˈsɛmblən(t)s/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.
Countable
noun
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.
Countable
noun
In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.
Countable; Dated
Example Sentences
- "Oft haue I ſeene a timely-parted Ghoſt, / Of aſhy ſemblance, meager, pale, and bloodleſſe, […]"
- "Be you the Souldier, for you likeſt are / For manly ſemblance, and ſmall skill in vvarre: […]"
- "Perhaps my ſemblance might deceive the truth, / That I to manhood am arriv'd ſo near, / And invvard ripenes doth much leſs appear, / That ſom more timely-happy ſpirits indu'th."
- "ACERONIA. […] The eye of Rome / And the Prætorian camp have long rever'd, / VVith cuſtom'd avve, the daughter, ſiſter, vvife, / And mother of their Cæsars. / AGRIPPINA. Ha, by Juno, / It bears a noble ſemblance."
- "Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie / Thy soul's immensity; […]"
- "[I]t may be the vulgar part of human nature which busies itself with the semblance and doings of living sovereigns, it is its nobler part which busies itself with those of the dead; […]"
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).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *sem-, semblaunce, semblance, similāre, simulō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɛmblən(t)s/
- British English: /ˈsɛmblən(t)s/