# appearance

> English word · Noun · IPA /əˈpɪə.ɹəns/ · frequency rank #2,058

## Definitions
1. The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye.
2. A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition.
3. The way something looks; personal presence
4. Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others.
5. That which is not substance, essence, hypostasis; the outward reality as opposed to the underlying reality
6. The act of appearing in a particular place, or in society, a company, or any proceedings; a coming before the public in a particular character.
7. An instance of someone coming into a court of law to be part of a trial, lawsuit or other proceeding, either in person or represented by an attorney or such like; a court appearance
8. Chiefly used by nurses: the act of defecation by a patient.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo. Morphologically appear + -ance. Doublet of apparence and apparency. Displaced native Old English hīew (“the way something looks or seems”) and ætīewednes (“act of appearing or coming into view”).

## Common misspellings (13)
`apearance`, `apeparance`, `appaerance`, `appeaarnce`, `appearacne`, `appearancce`, `appearanec`, `appearannce`, `appearence`, `appearnace`, `appearrance`, `apperaance`, `papearance`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/appearance