on the face of it
"on-the-face-of-it" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“on the face of it” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis.
Corpus desk
Index EN-on-the-face-of-it · on the face of it · English
on the face of it · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | on the face of it |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “on the face of it” in English
Rare enough to double-check
on the face of it is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for on the face of it, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is on the face of it, spelled O-N- -T-H-E- -F-A-C-E- -O-F- -I-T.
Definition
- 1Seemingly; to all appearances; as far as can be seen or determined without deeper investigation or analysis.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how on the face of it appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On the face of it, his case seemed hopeless. But appearances can be deceptive.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.