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Synonyms

on the surface

Idioms  

  1. Superficially, to all outward appearances, as in On the surface he appeared brave and patriotic, but his troops knew better. [Early 1700s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Despite the stock reactions, Favuzza said his impression of early buy-side sentiment was that the announcement “isn’t as big of a deal as it seems on the surface.”

From MarketWatch

Ultimately, “Against the Dying of the Light” succeeds as a whole because it’s so layered, offering aesthetic beauty and room-filling atmosphere on the surface and tangled concepts to wrestle with the deeper you go.

From The Wall Street Journal

On the surface, this sounds great.

From BBC

"Sound waves exert forces on particles -- just like waves on the surface of a pond can exert forces on a floating leaf," explains Morrell.

From Science Daily

These deposits formed when animals that died on the surface were washed into underground cavities, where they were eventually buried by sediment.

From Science Daily

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.