appear

verb

ap·pear | \ ə-ˈpir

appeared; appearing; appears

Definition of appear

intransitive verb

1a : to be or come in sight when the sun appears on the horizon

b : to show up He appears promptly at eight each day.

2 : to come formally before an authoritative body must appear in court today

3 : to have an outward aspect : seem She appears (to be) happy enough.

4 : to become evident or manifest There appears to be evidence to the contrary.

5 : to come into public view a performer who first appeared on a television variety show The book appeared in print a few years ago.

6 : to come into existence Hominids appeared late in the evolutionary chain.

Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about appear

Keep scrolling for more

Examples of appear in a Sentence

She appears a nice enough person. Winning the election appears unlikely at this point. One by one, the stars appeared in the sky. The sun began to appear from behind the clouds. The airplanes seemed to appear out of nowhere. The storm disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. The cat appears at our kitchen door every morning. One of the guests appeared a few minutes late. He appeared a little before eight last night.

Recent Examples on the Web

The proposal, the Medicare for America Act, first appeared as a 2018 paper by the Center for American Progress. — Chris Jacobs, WSJ, "This New Democratic Plan Would Ban Private Medicine," 12 May 2019 Other royals appear on this show too, such as Arthur, Prince of Wales (Angus Imrie) and Henry VII of England (Elliot Cowan). — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, "11 TV Shows and Movies to Watch While You Procrastinate Work This Week," 5 May 2019 The show also announced Hallmark star Rachael Leigh Cook will appear as Reid's love interest. — Jennifer Aldrich, Country Living, "The Final Season of 'Criminal Minds' Will Be a 'Tearjerker' and We're Not Ready," 27 Apr. 2019 When dark hair is used, these knots appear as small black dots that are super noticeable, particularly where the unit is parted. — Shammara Lawrence, Allure, "6 Common Wig Mistakes People Make and How to Fix Them," 21 Mar. 2019 Dozens of brands arranged for official promotional tie-ins with the show, without the benefit of appearing in a scene, including Bud Light, Mountain Dew, OkCupid and Oreo. — Nat Ives, WSJ, "Misplaced Coffee Cup on ‘Game of Thrones’ Brews Buzz for Starbucks," 6 May 2019 Free-kend World of Goo helped launch Humble way back in 2010, appearing in the first-ever Humble Bundle. — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, "This week in games: Razer is making a toaster, Sonic has human baby teeth," 3 May 2019 Actress Linda Hunt was injured in a car accident that kept her from appearing in many of the recent episodes, so hopefully her triumphant return is for good, not just for the remainder of this year. — Megan Stein, Country Living, "'NCIS: Los Angeles' Is Returning for Season 11, But Is Anyone Leaving the Cast?," 28 Apr. 2019 The film is the first major project for Josephine, who previously performed in a couple of shorts and appeared in a few episodes of Wolf Creek. — Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, "Josephine Langford on the Romance of "After," Bringing to Life Tessa, and Crying Fans," 22 Apr. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'appear.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for appear

Middle English aperen, apperen, borrowed from Anglo-French apier-, aper-, tonic stem of aparer, apareir, aparoir, going back to Latin appārēre "to come into sight, be visible, be evident," from ad- ad- + pārēre "to be visible, be evident, be subject (to), comply (with)," of uncertain origin

Note: Latin pārēre has been compared with a supposed base *peh₂-s-, suggested as the source of Avestan pišiiaṇt- "seeing," Armenian hayim "(I) look," Albanian pashë "(I) saw," though the limited nature of the evidence makes such a hypothesis speculative.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about appear

Dictionary Entries near appear

appealing

appeals court

appeal to the country

appear

appearance

appearances to the contrary

appearingly

Statistics for appear

Last Updated

25 May 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for appear

The first known use of appear was in the 13th century

See more words from the same century

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for appear

appear

verb

English Language Learners Definition of appear

somewhat formal : to seem to be something : to make someone think that a person or thing has a particular characteristic

: to become visible : to begin to be seen

: to arrive at a place : to show up

See the full definition for appear in the English Language Learners Dictionary

appear

verb

ap·pear | \ ə-ˈpir

appeared; appearing

Kids Definition of appear

1 : to come into sight Stars appeared in the sky.

2 : to present oneself appear in court

3 : seem sense 1 The runner in the lead appears to be tired.

4 : to come before the public The book appeared last year.

5 : to come into existence The first dinosaurs appeared around 215 million years ago.

appear

intransitive verb

ap·pear

Legal Definition of appear

1 : to present oneself before a person or body having authority: as

a : to present oneself in court as a party to a lawsuit often through the representation of an attorney also : to participate as a party to a lawsuit in a way other than by physical presence (as by mail)

b : to present oneself in court as the attorney for a party to a lawsuit appearing for the defendant

2 : to have an outward look conduct that appears unethical