From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ostensible \Os*ten"si*ble\ ([o^]s*t[e^]n"s[i^]*b'l), adjective [From L. ostensus, p. p. of ostendere to show, prop., to stretch out before; fr. prefix obs- (old form of ob-) + tendere to stretch. See {Tend}.]
1. Capable of being shown; proper or intended to be shown. [R.] --Walpole.
2. Outwardly appearing to be; shown to be; exhibited; apparent; evident. [1913 Webster +PJC]
3. Declared; avowed; professed; pretended; -- often used as opposed to {real} or {actual}; as, an ostensible reason, motive, or aim. --D. Ramsay. [1913 Webster +PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: appearing as such but not necessarily so; "for all his apparent wealth he had no money to pay the rent"; "the committee investigated some apparent discrepancies"; "the ostensible truth of their theories"; "his seeming honesty" [syn: {apparent(a)}, {seeming(a)}]
2: represented or appearing as such; pretended; "His ostensible purpose was charity, his real goal popularity" [syn: {ostensive}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
83 Moby Thesaurus words for "ostensible": Barmecidal, Barmecide, airy, alleged, apparent, apparitional, appearing, arrant, autistic, avowed, blatant, bold, chimeric, claimed, colorable, colored, conspicuous, deceptive, delusional, delusionary, delusive, delusory, dereistic, dreamlike, dreamy, erroneous, fallacious, false, fantastic, flagrant, gilded, glaring, hanging out, hypocritical, illusional, illusionary, illusive, illusory, imaginary, in name only, in relief, in the foreground, meretricious, misleading, notable, noticeable, notorious, obtrusive, outstanding, outward, phantasmagoric, phantasmal, phantom, plausible, pretended, pretexted, professed, prominent, pronounced, purported, salient, seeming, self-deceptive, self-deluding, so-called, specious, spectral, staring, stark-staring, sticking out, striking, superficial, supposed, supposititious, surface, tinsel, to the eye, unactual, unfounded, unreal, unsubstantial, visible, visionary
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