• appeare,appeer,appeere(obsolete)

FromMiddle Englishapperen,aperen, borrowed fromOld Frenchaparoir (Frenchapparoir), fromLatinappāreō(“I appear”), fromad(“to”) +pāreō(“I come forth, I become visible”), ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*peh₂-s-(“watch, see”), s-present of*peh₂-(“protect”).

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/əˈpɪə/
• (General American)IPA^(key):/əˈpɪɹ/,[əˈpʰɪɹ]

  • Audio(US):

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• (Scotland)IPA^(key):/əˈpiːɹ/
• Rhymes:-ɪə(ɹ)

appear (third-person singular simple presentappears,present participleappearing,simple past and past participleappeared)

1. (intransitive) Tocome or bein sight; to bein view; tobecomevisible.
   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,Genesis1:9:

     And God[…]said, Let[…]the dry landappear.

   • 2012 March-April,Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, inAmerican Scientist, volume100, number 2, page146:

     There were also particles no one had predicted that justappeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.

2. (intransitive) Tocome before thepublic.

   A great writerappeared at that time.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e.,Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, inThe Case of Miss Elliott, London:T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published1905,→OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909,OCLC11192831, quoted inThe Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia:Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes,appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

3. (intransitive) Tostand inpresence of someauthority,tribunal, orsuperior person, toanswer acharge,plead acause, etc.; topresent oneself as aparty oradvocate before acourt, or as a person to betried.
   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,2 Corinthians5:10:

     We must allappear before the judgment seat.

   • 1849–1861,Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, inThe History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume(please specify |volume=I to V), London:Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,→OCLC:

     One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared toappear.

4. (intransitive) To become visible to theapprehension of themind; to beknown as asubject ofobservation orcomprehension, or as a thingproved; to beobvious ormanifest.
   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,1 John3:2:

     It doth not yetappear what we shall be.

   • 1667,John Milton, “Book IX”, inParadise Lost. […], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:

     Of their vain contestappeared no end.

   • 1963,Margery Allingham, chapter 18, inThe China Governess: A Mystery, London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC:

     ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]?  Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear ofappearing in the newspapers?

   • 2013 July-August,Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, inAmerican Scientist:

     Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effectsappears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene,[…].

5. (intransitive,copulative) Toseem; to have acertainsemblance; tolook.

   Heappeared quite happy with the result.

   • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,Matthew6:16:

     They disfigure their faces, that they mayappear unto men to fast.

   • 1963,Margery Allingham, chapter 5, inThe China Governess: A Mystery, London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC:

     Mr. Campionappeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

6. (transitive) Tobring intoview.
   • c.1603–1604 (date written),William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene i]:

     [Angelo] is yet a devil / His filth within being cast, he wouldappear / A pond as deep as hell.

• In the sensesbe obvious andseem,appear is acatenative verb that takes theto infinitive. SeeAppendix:English catenative verbs
• Particularly in the sensesbe obvious,seem, andbring into view,appear is astative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. SeeCategory:English stative verbs

• (to become visible):emerge; see alsoThesaurus:appear
• (to seem):look

• (antonym(s) of“to become visible”):disappear,vanish

• appearance
• apparent
• appearer