semblar

Inherited from Old Catalan semblar, from Late Latin similāre, a verb based on Latin similis (“alike”). Compare Occitan semblar, French sembler.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [səmˈbla]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [semˈblaɾ]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

semblar (first-person singular present semblo, first-person singular preterite semblí, past participle semblat); root stress: (Central) /ɛ/; (Valencia) /e/; (Balearic) /ə/

1. (impersonal) to seem, look

   Synonym: parèixer

   Sembla que vagi a ploure.

   It seems that it's going to rain.

2. to look like, resemble

   Synonym: assemblar-se

• semblant
• semblança

• → Spanish: semblar

• “semblar” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “semblar”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.

Inherited from Late Latin similāre.

semblar (ORB, broad)

1. to seem
2. to resemble

• sembler in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• sembllar in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 7: “come somiglia” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[1] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1153: “ressemble” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “sĭmĭlare”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 11: S–Si, page 623

Borrowed from English seem, French sembler, Italian sembrare, ultimately from Late Latin similāre.

semblar (present tense semblas, past tense semblis, future tense semblos, imperative semblez, conditional semblus)

1. (intransitive) to seem, appear (to be)

From Late Latin similāre, a verb derived from Latin similis (“similar”). Compare Old French sembler.

semblar

1. seem; to appear

• Occitan: semblar
• → Italian: sembrare, sembiare, semblare (poetic, archaic)
• → Portuguese: sembrar
• → Spanish: semblar (archaic)

Borrowed from Old Catalan or Old Occitan semblar.

• IPA^(key): /semˈblaɾ/ [sẽmˈblaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: sem‧blar

semblar (first-person singular present semblo, first-person singular preterite semblé, past participle semblado)

1. (intransitive, archaic) to look like, resemble, seem

   Synonym: semejar

• “semblar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024