ostensible
C1CEFR level
65/100Rarity: rare
FormalRegister
General adjective
Stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
The ostensible aim of the reform was efficiency, though critics suspected otherwise.
Medicine adjective
Stated or appearing to be true, though possibly not so.
The ostensible reason for the missed appointment was recorded in the notes before further history was taken.
Law adjective
Stated as the reason, though perhaps not the real one.
The ostensible motive was safety; the real one was cost.
Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.
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