On the surface

Synonyms for "on the surface" (49 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (10)

ankle deepcursory
Preposition(7 words)
apparentapparentlyappearanceat first glancecasuallycaveat phrasecontrast cue
Verb(1 words)
appear on screen

Strong matches (15)

Preposition(7 words)
exteriorexternallyfacadefixed expressionidiomon the exterioron the outside
Adverb(1 words)

Related words (24)

Preposition(11 words)
Adjective(1 words)
outward shape

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

5 relation types

More general

13 entries
adverbadverbial phraseappearancecue phrasediscourse markerfeatureidiom expressionidiomatic expressionlocation phrasephraseologyprepositional phrasespatial prepositional phrasespatial relation

More specific

22 entries
apparent truthappearance based claimcautious claimcursory scanfacadefirst impressionouter layerouter surfaceoutward aspectpanelpretensequalifying statementquick glanceskinsurface appearancesurface interpretation

Showing 16 of 22 words.

Collocations

16 entries
apparentlyat first glanceexterior surfaceon the surface ofoutward appearanceoutwardlyrough surfaceseeminglysmooth surfacesuperficiallysurface areasurface levelsurface level readingsurface tensionsurface texturesurface water

Inflections

3 entries

Derivations

6 entries

Sample sentences

1 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

On the surface, the film is a globe-trotting gross-out caper in which Nobby, who's from a hellish version of the titular Lincolnshire town ("twinned with Chernobyl"), is reunited with his long-lost brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), who has become a spy for the British secret services.

Source: wiktionary