appear

From Middle English apperen, aperen, borrowed from Old French aparoir (French apparoir, apparaître), from Latin apparēre (“to appear”), from ad (“to”) + parēre (“come forth, to be visible”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɪə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈpɪɹ/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /əˈpiːɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

appear (third-person singular simple present appears, present participle appearing, simple past and past participle appeared)

1. (intransitive) To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
   • 1611, Genesis 1:9:

     And God […] said, Let […] the dry land appear.

   • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.

2. (intransitive) To come before the public.

   A great writer appeared at that time.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre‎:

     Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

3. (intransitive) To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, etc.; to present oneself as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
   • 1611, 2 Corinthians 5:10:

     We must all appear before the judgment seat.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Babington Macaulay:

     One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear.

4. (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.
   • 1611, 1 John 3:2:

     It doth not yet appear what we shall be.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton:

     Of their vain contest appeared no end.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess‎:

     ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]?  Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

   • 2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:

     Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, […] .

5. (intransitive, copulative) To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.

   He appeared quite happy with the result.

   • 1611, Matthew 6:16:

     They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎:

     Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

6. (transitive) To bring into view.
   • c. 1604: Measure for Measure by Shakespeare

     [Angelo] is yet a devil / His filth within being cast, he would appear / A pond as deep as hell.

• Senses 4, 5. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (to become visible): emerge; see also Thesaurus:appear
• (seem): look

• (to become visible): disappear, vanish

• appearance
• apparent