different between appearance vs surface

English

Alternative forms

• appearaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French apparence, from Latin apparentia, from appareo.Displaced native Middle English wlite (“appearance”).

Morphologically appear +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p????ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??p???ns/
• Hyphenation: ap?pear?ance

Noun

appearance (countable and uncountable, plural appearances)

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

   Synonyms: aspect, mien
4. Apparent likeness; the way which something or someone appears to others.
   • 1769, The King James Bible, Numbers ix. 15

     And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.

   • 1769, The King James Bible John vii. 24

     Judge not according to the appearance.

5. (philosophy, theology) 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.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained

     Will he now retire, After appearance, and again prolong Our expectation?

7. (law) An instance of someone coming into a court of law to be part of a trial, either in person or represented by an attorney or such like; a court appearance
8. (medicine) Chiefly used by nurses: the act of defecation by a patient.

Synonyms

• (act of coming into sight): arrival, manifestation,
• (a thing seen): spectacle, apparition, phenomenon, presence
• (aspect of a person): aspect, air, figure, look, manner, mien
• (outward show): semblance, show, pretense, façade or facade
• (act of appearing in public): debut

Antonyms

• non-appearance, nonappearance

Derived terms

Related terms

• appear
• apparent

Translations

References

• appearance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From French surface.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s??f?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s??f?s/

Noun

surface (plural surfaces)

1. The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
2. The outside hull of a tangible object.
3. (figuratively) Outward or external appearance.
   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, […].

4. (mathematics, geometry) The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.
5. (fortification) That part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Stocqueler to this entry?)

Synonyms

• overside
• superfice (archaic)

Derived terms

Related terms

• surficial

Translations

Verb

surface (third-person singular simple present surfaces, present participle surfacing, simple past and past participle surfaced)

1. (transitive) To provide something with a surface.
2. (transitive) To apply a surface to something.
3. (intransitive) To rise to the surface.
4. (transitive) To bring to the surface.
   • 2007, Patrick Valentine, The Sage of Aquarius (page 182)

     Sage went immediately to work; Damien surfaced the submarine and readied the group to meet outside the hatch.

5. (intransitive) To come out of hiding.
6. (intransitive) For information or facts to become known.
7. (transitive) To make information or facts known.
8. (intransitive) To work a mine near the surface.
9. (intransitive) To appear or be found.

Translations

French

Etymology

sur- +? face, calque of Latin superficies.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy?.fas/
• Homophones: surfaces, surfacent

Noun

surface f (plural surfaces)

1. surface

Derived terms

Further reading

• “surface” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).