Word.ws English Dictionary

at first glance

at first glance prepositional phrase: after only a superficial examination or review.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (modal) After only a superficial examination or review.
    • At first glance it seems to be a reasonable idea. But we'll see.
    • At first glance, thinking well of yourself seems obviously preferable to thinking poorly of yourself. But the problem with […]2007 August 18, Oliver Burkeman, “Feel good, feel bad”, in The Guardian

at first glance meaning in Hindi, Malayalam, Arabic and Indonesian

at first glance in Hindi

after only a superficial examination or review
प्रथम दृष्ट्या pratham dŕṣṭyā

at first glance in Malayalam

at first sight, on the face of it, on the surface
പ്രഥമദൃഷ്ടിയിൽ, ആദ്യനോട്ടത്തിൽ, ആദ്യനോട്ടത്തിന്, ഒറ്റനോട്ടത്തിൽ, കണ്ടയുടനെ, ദിങ്മാത്രം

at first glance in Arabic

after only a superficial examination or review
لِلْوَهْلَة اَلْأُولَى li-l-wahla l-ʔūlā

at first glance in Indonesian

after only a superficial examination or review
pada pandangan pertama
More languagesFewer languages
at first glance in Vietnamese
ban đầu, thoạt nhìn

Synonyms of at first glance

Questions about at first glance

What does at first glance mean?
At first glance means after only a superficial examination or review.
What is at first glance in Hindi?
At first glance in Hindi is प्रथम दृष्ट्या (pratham dŕṣṭyā). See At first glance meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is at first glance?
At first glance is a prepositional phrase.

Words near at first glance in the dictionary

  1. at every turn
  2. at fault
  3. at first
  4. at first bluff
  5. at first blush
  6. at first glance
  7. at first hand
  8. at first sight
  9. at full pelt
  10. at full stretch
  11. at full throttle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at first glance (page history and authors); at first glance (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-at first glance.wav.

Cite this entry: “at first glance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/at_first_glance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.