at first glance
32
3.5
- idiom
:
a primera vista
- At first glance, everything looked the same.
- at first glance, it seems
- at first glance, it appears
- at first glance, this statement
Would you necessarily believe these data at first glance or at face value?
- Would you necessarily believe these data at first glance or at face value?
- So it's a really interesting idea, one that at first glance I thought would be completely theoretical.
- While at first glance this Royal Oak appears to be gem set, it's not.
- By contrast, to Chinese readers, the characters might seem legible at first glance, but they are in fact indecipherable.
- The army, for reasons I've just said that is Christianity, is not at first glance congenial to people who fight for a living.
- Let's start with getting inside and specifically the key, which at first glance looks like a normal key, but the top half of it folds in half.
- Appears at first glance to the inexperienced viewer.
- Well, these, these works are not designed to be understood at first glance.
- They're not like friendly or polite or hospitable, like, not at first glance at least.
- Anyway, they're popping up in different places, but this is the wonder Bronze and this is something that at first glance I'll be like no, Oh no.
Examples
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At first glance, the painting looks simple, but it has many hidden details.
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As you can see at first glance, it's not that surprising.
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OK, so this is, at first glance, a very weird thing.
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OK, OK, So at first glance, it's fine, right?
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So I would say at first glance, chance of this working out is actually looking pretty good.
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Well, at first glance, your eyes are brown.
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Oh, it was beautiful at first glance.
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Even this finding, however, is not as powerful as it appears at first glance.
Academic text (1999) -
Sometimes, at first glance, things aren't what they seem.
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At first glance, it's a casual ensemble.
Synonyms
78
3.3
When you first see something and notice or feel something right away
21
5.3
Judging something only by what you first see without checking hidden facts
9
9.5
Appears true at first sight before more checks
9
3.0
With a quick look you notice something right away
3
6.8
When you first look at something, it seems right before you check details
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is transparently built from 'at' (indicating time), 'first' (initially) and 'glance' (a brief look), so its meaning 'on initial inspection' is directly derivable from the constituents. This temporal+perceptual composition is common across languages and follows standard English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the words would readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase at first glance comes from the idea of a quick look: a glance is a very short, first look. So, it is used to say 'when you first see or think about something, before you look more closely'.