appear
verb
Simple meaning
to come into view, or to seem a certain way
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhpirSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈpɪɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Come into sight or view
“He suddenly appeared at the wedding.”
intransitive
To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
intransitive
To come before the public.
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.
Seem to be true, probable, or apparent
intransitivecopulative
To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Come into sight or view
Used this way, appear is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He suddenly appeared at the wedding.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use appear
- “He suddenly appeared at the wedding.”verb
- “He had to appear in court last month.”verb
- “Did your latest book appear yet?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Formal attendance (in court or at a hearing) of a party in an action.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Outward or visible aspect of a person or thing.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A celibate and communistic Christian sect in the United States.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: come into sight or view
Antonyms
Sense: come into sight or view
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.