on the surface
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"So we never discussed it and we just had, on the surface level, a very fun night," he says.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
The other is more direct: receptors for GLP-1, the hormone these drugs mimic, appear on the surface of some tumor cells, raising the possibility that the drugs are acting on cancer biology itself.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
Because expensive memory chips are also part of the latter package, he noted that the $20 billion estimate might not be all it seems on the surface.
From MarketWatch • May 21, 2026
"This is a book that surprises and isn't perhaps what it seems like on the surface," said chair of the judges Natasha Brown.
From Barron's • May 19, 2026
“The winds from the west will be too strong for us to work on the surface now.”
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
