semblant
English
Alternative forms
- semblaunt (obsolete)
Etymology
Borrowed from French semblant. Doublet of simulant.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsɛmblənt/
Noun
semblant (plural semblants)
- (obsolete) One's outward appearance.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- But vnder simple shew and semblant plaine / Lurckt false Duessa secretly vnseene […]
Derived terms
Adjective
semblant (comparative more semblant, superlative most semblant)
- (obsolete) Like; resembling.
- 1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “An Epistle during the Queen's Picture”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
- their eyes survey
The semblant shade
- Seeming, rather than real; apparent.
- 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page):
- [C]ommands ... that there be a just real union [of Scotland and England] as of brother and brother, not a false and merely semblant one as of slave and master.
Catalan
Etymology
Inherited from Late Latin similantem, present active participle of similāre (“resemble”), a verb based on Latin similis (“similar”). By surface analysis, semblar + -ant.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (Central) [səmˈblan]
- IPA(key): (Balearic) [səmˈblant]
- IPA(key): (Valencia) [semˈblant]
Audio (Catalonia): (file)
Adjective
semblant m or f (masculine and feminine plural semblants)
- similar
- such
- Synonym: tal
- No és lícit de recórrer a semblants mitjans.
- It's not right to resort to such means.
Derived terms
Related terms
Verb
semblant
- gerund of semblar
Further reading
- “semblant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
- “semblant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
- “semblant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “semblant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
French
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Participle
semblant
- present participle of sembler
Noun
semblant m (plural semblants)
- a semblance (of something)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “semblant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.