Seem
verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To appear; to look outwardly; to be perceived as. copulative
"She is seeming a bit down these days. Her eyes seem blue. It must have seemed to her she was safe. How'd she seem to you? He seems not to be at home. "It seems like rain". "It seems to me (to be) rather sleety."; "There seem to be a few problems.""
- 2 give a certain impression of being something or having a certain aspect wordnet
- 3 To befit; to beseem. obsolete
"And all within were pathes and alleies wide, With footing worne, and leading inward farre: Faire harbour that them seemes; so in they entred arre."
- 4 (of a proposition) seem to be true, probable, or apparent wordnet
Example
More examples"You seem to be prejudiced against ideas that come from foreign countries."
Etymology
From Middle English semen (“to seem, befit, be becoming”), from Old Norse sœma (“to conform to, beseem, befit”), from Proto-Germanic *sōmijaną (“to unite, fit”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; whole”). Cognate with Scots seme (“to be fitting; beseem”), Danish sømme (“to beseem”), Old Swedish søma, Faroese søma (“to be proper”). Related also to Old Norse sómi (“honour”) ( > archaic Danish somme (“decent comportment”)), Old Norse sœmr (“fitting, seemly”), Old English sēman (“to reconcile, bring an agreement”), Old English sōm (“agreement”).
Related phrases
More for "seem"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.