on the face of
21
5.3
- idiom
:
a simple vista
- On the face of it, the project appears to be well-planned and efficient.
- look on the face of
- appear on the face of
- on the face of things
And their answer was, you know, on the face of it, it seems crazy.
- And their answer was, you know, on the face of it, it seems crazy.
- And to a certain degree, on the face of it, it looks true.
- But that law was our first law, which on the face of it violated the First Amendment.
- And I think you can see even on the face of it, once that trust issue is solved, those markets can work a lot better, right?
- That is, there is on the face of it some kind of a flat out contradiction among these various principles that I just listed.
- Because on the face of it, this is really going to be the tool that helps us tackle all the challenges that we're facing as a species, right?
- And, and just on the face of that, that that's pretty interesting moving, affecting.
- You only know what's on the face of it.
- And it looks on the face of it like he did just get lost, wondered and and fell off a a Cliff edge or something.
Examples
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That seems to me, on the face of it, to be a plan worth taking seriously.
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But my position on the matter is that monarchy, it seems to me, is on the face of it quite ridiculous.
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And their answer was, you know, on the face of it, it seems crazy.
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And he came up with a scheme that on the face of it, should really not work.
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What might have appeared so, on the face of things, was in reality quite different.
Academic text (1993) -
OK, so on the face of it, it would seem that this is the only physical possibility.
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There is, on the face of it, widespread public support for an elected House of Lords.
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The second company deal seems really shady to me on the face of it.
Blog text (20) -
And I think you can see even on the face of it, once that trust issue is solved, those markets can work a lot better, right?
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On the face of it, the legislation delivers substantial new rights and entitlements to agency staff.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
32
3.5
You notice something before you look more closely
12
5.5
Something looks true at first but may not be
3
6.8
When you first look at something, it seems right before you check details
Antonyms
How Apparent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase uses 'face' in its basic sense of a front or surface, so a learner who knows the constituents can plausibly infer a meaning like 'on the surface of' or 'as it appears.' However, the shift from a literal physical surface to the abstract sense 'superficially/at first glance' is a metaphorical extension that not all B1 learners will automatically make without prior exposure, so the transparency is partial.
Etymology
On the face of comes from the idea of a thing's face, its front or surface. If you judge something by its face you look only at what is obvious, so the phrase means 'judging only by what is immediately obvious'.