Appear

How to spell appear

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce appear

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does appear mean?

1. verbTo become visible or come into sight.
2. verbTo seem or give a particular impression.

Appear in a sentence

• The first stars appear once the sky darkens.

• The figures appear to confirm a steady rise in profit.

• New shops will appear along the high street next spring.

• She did not appear worried about the delayed flight.

Where does appear come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb apparere, meaning 'to come into sight' or 'to become visible'. It was built from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', joined to parere, meaning 'to come forth' or 'to show oneself'; before a 'p' the prefix assimilated and the 'd' became another 'p', which is why the modern spelling carries a doubled 'p'. English took it in during the 1200s through Old French apareir, and from the start it carried both the literal sense of something becoming visible and the looser sense of something seeming to be the case. The same parere root surfaces in relatives such as 'apparent' and 'apparition', which can help fix the doubled 'p' in memory. Knowing that the two p's come from ad- meeting parere is the surest guard against writing it with a single 'p'.

How the word is built

• ap- (to, toward; from Latin ad-)
• -pear (from parere: to come forth, become visible)