as in seemingly
to all outward appearances
he stops by his old office periodically, ostensively just to say "hi"
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ostensively
Adverb
-
After that, Johnson was seemingly out of the jam, but the pop-up dropped and two more runs scored.—
Jeff Fletcher,
Oc Register,
31 Mar. 2026 -
In Tennessee, bills moving through the legislature would allow public schools to refuse to enroll undocumented students, seemingly in violation of Plyer.—
Jenni Fink,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Mar. 2026
Adverb
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Even at an early age, apparently, the patient had a few small, smooth, normal patches of skin; some had stayed the same size, but others had grown and spread.—
Jerome Groopman,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
-
The Granville Suite, once military reception rooms, is named after Christine Granville, rumored lover of Ian Fleming and apparently Churchill’s favorite spy.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
5 Apr. 2026
Adverb
-
In January 1979, the shah left Iran, ostensibly to seek cancer treatment.—
Jeffrey Fields,
The Conversation,
4 Apr. 2026
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Which means your job is ostensibly to try to make people better bosses, right?—
Charlie Warzel,
The Atlantic,
3 Apr. 2026
Adverb
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Our military bases in the region, Margaret, right now are supposedly uninhabitable.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
29 Mar. 2026
-
In Huerta’s case, critics just don’t buy how someone who carried Chávez’s torch decades after his death could all of a sudden supposedly turn on him.—
Gustavo Arellano,
Mercury News,
27 Mar. 2026
Adverb
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Markström, evidently unhappy at Shesterkin pushing Cotter, skated down the ice and asked Shesterkin to fight.—
Peter Baugh,
New York Times,
1 Apr. 2026
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Zuck evidently can’t grow a beard, but Ezra Klein and Senator Chris Murphy have.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
Adverb
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So why was The Testaments the project to lead to her largest acting role — and, presumably, press circuit — in years?—
David Canfield,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Mar. 2026
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The musicians presumably had to rely heavily on loops in order to finish their tracks before the buzzer went off, and something is always slamming, scratching, or puttering away in the background.—
Daniel Bromfield,
Pitchfork,
30 Mar. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Ostensively.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ostensively. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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