Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An outward or token appearance.
  • noun A representation; a copy.
  • noun The barest trace; a modicum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or fact of being like of similar; likeness; similarity; resemblance.
  • noun Likeness; image; exterior form.
  • noun Face; countenance; aspect.
  • noun Appearance; outward seeming; show.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Seeming; appearance; show; figure; form.
  • noun Likeness; resemblance, actual or apparent; similitude.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun likeness, similarity; the quality of being similar.
  • noun Seeming; appearance; show; figure; form.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing
  • noun an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
  • noun an erroneous mental representation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from sembler, to resemble; see semblable.]

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Examples

  • I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order.

    08/31/2005 2005

  • Sophia, Imperial honors, a stately palace, a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by the piety of her adopted son; on solemn occasions he attended and consulted the widow of his benefactor; but her ambition disdained the vain semblance of royalty, and the respectful appellation of mother served to exasperate, rather than appease, the rage of an injured woman.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes of German debauchery.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • I don’t care if Jackie Chan doesn’t fit Goku’s general look, why can they not retain semblance of Asian culture, in either film?

    Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Nobody’s Asian in the Movies 2009

  • We who knew HENRY WINTER DAVIS are not content to clothe ourselves in the outward garb of grief, and call the semblance of mourning a fitting tribute to the gifted orator and statesman, so suddenly snatched from our midst in the full glory of his mental and bodily strength.

    Oration on the Life and Character of Henry Winter Davis John A. J. Creswell

  • Thus -- to sum up Browning's view of knowledge -- we are ignorant of the world; we do not know even whether it is good, or evil, or only their semblance, that is presented to us in human life; and we know nothing of

    Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher Henry Jones 1887

  • In a lodging you are promptly and respectfully personalized; your tastes are consulted, if not gratified; your minor wants, in which your comfort lies, are interpreted, and possibly there grows up round you the semblance, which is not altogether deceitful, of your own house.

    London Films William Dean Howells 1878

  • Sometimes, therefore, the political economists invest economic conditions with a human semblance, that is, when they are attacking a particular abuse, but at other times, which is mostly the case, they interpret these conditions in their strict economic meaning, as distinguished from human conditions.

    Selected Essays Karl Marx 1850

  • Or maybe some shred of evidence, of some kind of semblance of interest

    Max and the Marginalized: Date With Dynasty 2009

  • There ` s got to be some kind of semblance as to this investigation.

    CNN Transcript Sep 15, 2009 2009

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