adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   Externally or on the outside, or on the surface.

   "The terrorist was outwardly a bank clerk."

2. 2
   Toward the outside

Adverb

1. 1
   in outward appearance wordnet
2. 2
   with respect to the outside wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

externallyapparentlyapparentlyas it seemsat first sightevidently

Antonyms

All antonyms

inwardly

Example

More examples

"The inside defects never fail to express themselves outwardly."

Etymology

From Middle English outwardly, outwardli, utwardliche, equivalent to outward + -ly.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.