ostensibleadjective [ before noun ]
uk/ɒsˈten.sə.bəl/us/ɑːˈsten.sə.bəl/formalappearing or claiming to be one thing when it is really something else:
Their ostensible goal was to clean up government corruption, but their real aim was to unseat the government.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Seeming and purporting to be
- apparent
- as if/though idiom
- by the look(s) of things idiom
- come
- come across
- come over
- face
- outward
- paper
- persona
- prima facie
- purport
- putative
- reportedly
- so-called
- sound
- supposed
- supposedly
- verisimilitude
- you can't judge a book by its cover idiom
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ostensibly
adverb uk/ɒsˈten.sə.bli/us/ɑːˈsten.sə.bli/
He has spent the past three months in Florida, ostensibly for medical treatment, but in actual fact to avoid prosecution.