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Definition of "ostensible" []

  • Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ostensible" in a sentence
  • "And none of the hedge fund geniuses think to actually pick up the phone and call the ostensible issuer of the notes just to check and see that the notes are real and Dreier is authorized to peddle them."
  • "They have exercised the right to determine from the circumstances whether the ostensible was the real destination."
  • "Philip, at whose request he had come, had charged him by no means to divulge the secret, as the King was anxious to have it believed that the ostensible was the only business which the prelate had to perform in the country."