ostensible

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adjective os·ten·si·ble \ä-ˈsten(t)-sə-bəl, ə-\

: seeming or said to be true or real but very possibly not true or real

Full Definition of OSTENSIBLE

1

:  intended for display :  open to view

2

:  being such in appearance :  plausible rather than demonstrably true or real <the ostensible purpose for the trip>

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Examples of OSTENSIBLE

1. <the ostensible reason for the meeting turned out to be a trick to get him to the surprise party>
2. That intelligence and those facts, of course, all pertained to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, the war's ostensible casus belli, which we now know did not exist. —Frank Rich, New York Review, 6 Apr. 2006
3. To listen again to “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”—probably the most relentlessly cheerful song ever written on the ostensible theme of misery—is at once to admire its delicately judged textures and Swiss-watch precision … —Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books, 15 Dec. 2005
4. Its ostensible subject is America's murderous gun culture. Its real subject, of course, is the ravenous ego of its director-star, Michael Moore. —Scott Berg, Time, 14 July 2003
5. It's a snarky, glory-thieving place, the world of big-bucks political fund raising. Ostensible grownups can be reduced to screaming toddlers over who gets the credit for bringing in a major donor's gift … —Viveca Novak, Time, 14 June 1999

Origin of OSTENSIBLE

French, from Latin ostensus, past participle of ostendere to show, from obs-, ob- in the way + tendere to stretch — more at ob-, thin

First Known Use: circa 1771

Related to OSTENSIBLE

Synonyms

assumed, evident, apparent, ostensive, presumed, prima facie, putative, reputed, seeming, supposed

Related Words

demonstrable, external, outward, superficial, visible; conceivable, plausible, possible, supposable; likely, probable; clear, distinct, manifest, obvious, plain; deceptive, delusive, delusory, illusive, illusory, imaginary; misleading, specious; fake, faked, feigned, phony (also phoney), pretended, pseudo, put-on; alleged, claimed, professed, purported, so-called

Near Antonyms

hidden, inapparent; implausible, impossible, improbable, inconceivable, unlikely; actual, authenticated, confirmed, corroborated, established, genuine, real, substantiated, sure, valid, validated, verified

See Synonym Discussion at apparent

Rhymes with OSTENSIBLE

condensable