different between attire vs appearance

English

Etymology

From Middle English atyren, atiren, from Old French atirier (“to equip”), from a- + tire (“rank”), akin to German Zier (“ornament”) and Old Norse tírr (“glory, renown”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ta??(?)/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)

Noun

attire (countable and uncountable, plural attires)

1. (clothing) One's dress; what one wears; one's clothes.

   He was wearing his formal attire.

2. (heraldry) The single horn of a deer or stag.

Translations

Verb

attire (third-person singular simple present attires, present participle attiring, simple past and past participle attired)

1. (transitive) To clothe or adorn.

Synonyms

• dight, don, dress; see also Thesaurus:clothe

Translations

Anagrams

• aettir, ratite

French

Verb

attire

1. first-person singular present indicative of attirer
2. third-person singular present indicative of attirer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of attirer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of attirer
5. second-person singular imperative of attirer

Anagrams

• attéri, étirât, itérât, traite, traité

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.