Word.ws English Dictionary

on the surface

on the surface prepositional phrase: apparently, outwardly; superficially.

Prepositional phrase

  1. apparently, outwardly; superficially
    • 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.2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London)

on the surface meaning in Malayalam

on the surface in Malayalam

outwardly, at first glance, to the casual eye
ഉപരിതലത്തിൽ, ആദ്യനോട്ടത്തിൽ, പുറമേ, സ്പഷ്ടം, ആദ്യത്തെ നോട്ടത്തിൽ, ആകപ്പാടെയുള്ള നോട്ടത്തിൽ

Synonyms of on the surface

Questions about on the surface

What does on the surface mean?
On the surface means apparently, outwardly; superficially.
What is on the surface in Malayalam?
On the surface in Malayalam is ഉപരിതലത്തിൽ, ആദ്യനോട്ടത്തിൽ, പുറമേ. See On the surface meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is on the surface?
On the surface is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the surface in the dictionary

  1. on the street
  2. on the streets
  3. on the strength of
  4. on the stroke of
  5. on the stump
  6. on the surface
  7. on the table
  8. on the tack
  9. on the take
  10. on the tap
  11. on the tapis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the surface (page history and authors); on the surface (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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Cite this entry: “on the surface.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_surface. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.