different between bearing vs appearance

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??????/
• (US) enPR: bâr'?ng IPA^(key): /?b????/
• Rhymes: -?????

Etymology 1

From Middle English beringe, berynge, berende, berande, berand, from Old English berende (“bearing; fruitful”) (also as synonym Old English b?rende), from Proto-Germanic *berandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *beran? (“to bear; carry”), equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Verb

bearing

1. present participle of bear

Adjective

bearing (not comparable)

1. (in combination) That bears (some specified thing).

   a gift-bearing visitor

2. Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   That's a bearing wall.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bering, beringe, berynge, equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Noun

bearing (plural bearings)

1. A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.
2. (navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.
3. (in the plural, especially in phrases such as 'get one's bearings') One's understanding of one's orientation or relative position, literally or figuratively.

   Do we go left here or straight on? Hold on, let me just get my bearings.

   I started a new job last week, and I still haven't quite found my bearings.

4. Relevance; a relationship or connection.

   That has no bearing on this issue.
5. One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

   She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.
6. (architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

   A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

7. (architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. (architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

   The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

9. (heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

     Jos Sedley's open carriage, with its magnificent armorial bearings.

Hyponyms

Related terms

• find one’s bearings
• get one’s bearings
• lose one’s bearings

Translations

See also

• ABEC
• bearing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Binegar, bangier, barge in

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.