on the face of it
12
5.5
- idiom
:
a primera vista
- On the face of it, she seems to be happy with her new job, but I wonder if she truly is.
- it seems on the face of it
- it appears on the face of it
- these facts on the face of it
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.
- So on the face of it, these are the countries that are most threatened.
- 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?
- 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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And he came up with a scheme that on the face of it, should really not work.
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On the face of it, the legislation delivers substantial new rights and entitlements to agency staff.
Academic text (2011) -
And their answer was, you know, on the face of it, it seems crazy.
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That seems to me, on the face of it, to be a plan worth taking seriously.
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So on the face of it, these are the countries that are most threatened.
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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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In fact, the proposition is absurd on the face of it.
Blog text (10) -
Because a lot of what's in here on the face of it looks fairly credible.
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On the face of it, such a tax could simultaneously slow down the replacement.
Academic text (2018)
Synonyms
∞
2.8
Something that seems true from what you know or see but may not be
253
3.7
It looks true from what you see, but may not be
43
7.5
In a way that seems true but may not be
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
How Apparent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'judging by appearances' is directly derivable from combining 'face' (the surface or front of something) with the locative 'on' and deictic 'it' to yield 'on the surface of it' — an interpretation a B1 learner who knows the words can infer. This composition follows a common cross-linguistic pattern (e.g. 'on the surface/at first sight'), so the phrase is compositional and immediately comprehensible.
Etymology
The idiom on the face of it comes from the idea of looking at something's face, its outside or 'surface' that you see first. So when you judge on the face of it, you make a decision from the obvious appearance without checking deeper.