seemingly

British  

/ ˈsiːmɪŋlɪ /

adverb

1. in appearance but not necessarily in actuality

   with seemingly effortless ease

2. (sentence modifier) apparently; as far as one knows

   seemingly, he had few friends left

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Explanation

Something seemingly true appears to be true. Use the adverb seemingly when you want to say "on the face of it" or "apparently." The word seemingly refers to how things look on the surface — how they seem — and it often suggests there's more to the story. A seemingly broken ankle might actually be sprained, and a seemingly rich man might actually be deeply in debt. While your dog is seemingly well-behaved, he may be eating the garbage when you're not home. Seemingly means about the same as apparently, ostensibly, or surely.

Example Sentences

People heading to Yosemite to escape urban congestion fumed this weekend as they waited in a seemingly endless line of cars at the park entrance.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

There's also the very visible, and seemingly intractable, problem of homelessness, which inflicts misery on the thousands who suffer it and scars the streets of great cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.

From Barron's • May 5, 2026

On earnings calls in recent weeks, seemingly every executive at a consumer-facing company has fielded at least one question about how business is holding up in the face of high gas prices.

From MarketWatch • May 3, 2026

Even in the summer high season, I’d venture just a few steps off the well-trodden tourist path and find I had the city’s quiet back streets seemingly all to myself.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026

What the press—and seemingly everyone else—failed to understand was that it was Bobby’s shrewdness in protecting his financial interests, rather than temper tantrums or neuroses, that was making him hesitate.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady