Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use surface in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Surface means the external boundary of an object or body. Example: “On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.”

Examples of surface by meaning

nounThe overside or upside of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.

  • Be mindful of surface conditions, as some surfaces may reflect more light into the night sky than was intended.2020 June 1, DarkSky International, Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting

nounThe outside hull of a tangible object.

  • Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest.2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80

nounOutward or external appearance.

  • On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.

nounThe story or image suggested by a cryptic clue, when read as a whole sentence without considering wordplay.

  • The surface is clearly about people like you and me, those whose better days are behind us and who now shop at M&S.2010 May 3, Sandy Balfour, “Beginner's guide to solving cryptic crosswords”, in The Guardian
  • If you are fooled by the surface you start thinking about internet browsers.2018 December 7, Bryan Lawson, The Design Student's Journey: understanding How Designers Think, Routledge, →ISBN
  • This clue with a booze-related surface uses “sandwich” wordplay, with an insertion of P from “priceless” into “lean to”, which the Oxford Dictionary of English lists as an alternative to “lean towards”, meaning the same as “incline to”.2024 June 4, Peter Biddlecombe, “Sunday Times clue writing contest 2020: Lepanto”, in Sunday Times

nounA portion of the display to which graphics can be rendered.

  • The video player algorithm requires a target surface.

verbTo provide with a surface; to apply a surface to.

  • The crew surfaced the road with bitumen.

verbTo rise to the surface.

  • There was great relief when the missing diver finally surfaced.
  • Earlier in the voyage a curious bearded seal (top) had surfaced in Anderson Bay off Victoria Island to inspect us.1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 599

verbTo bring to the surface.

  • Sage went immediately to work; Damien surfaced the submarine and readied the group to meet outside the hatch.2007, Patrick Valentine, The Sage of Aquarius, page 182

More sentences with surface

  • The metal surface showed signs of abrasion after years of use.From the entry abrasion
  • If the mix is too fluid, the ags can sink away from the surface.From the entry ag
  • There’s nothing more thrilling to the whale watcher than to see a whale surface and blow.From the entry blow
  • A fabricator is used to direct a sharp blow to the surface of the stone.From the entry blow
  • A nylon collar kept the bolt from damaging the surface underneath.From the entry collar
  • The captain named it Pearl Rock after the rising sun illuminated the surface of the island.From the entry rock
  • You'll need to focus the microscope carefully in order to capture the full detail of this surface.From the entry focus
  • During smelting, scum rises to the surface and is then removed by the smelter.From the entry scum
  • Hard water will spot if it is left on a surface.From the entry spot
  • Then he impresses the die into the clay to produce a design on the surface.From the entry impress
  • Surface water will do, but give it a good boil before drinking it.From the entry boil
  • John has been complicated in the affair by new tapes that surfaced.From the entry complicate
  • Improper cooling and a dull milling cutter on titanium can gall the surface.From the entry gall
  • Caustic curves and surfaces are called catacaustic when formed by reflection, and diacaustic when formed by refraction.From the entry caustic curve
  • On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own.From the entry bush
  • Corpses surfaced near Portsmouth - was one of them Buster Crabb? Or were neither of them?From the entry neither
  • To catch a big fish, use a hopper that jumps across the pond surface.From the entry hopper
  • The rock surface of a rockpool is the substrate for a sessile organism such as a limpet.From the entry substrate
  • The old house was covered in vines crawling over every available surface.From the entry crawl
  • A gooseneck lamp can be swiveled around an object, allowing a good examination of all its surfaces.From the entry gooseneck
  • A sphere may be osculatory to the surface in every direction at an umbilicus.From the entry umbilicus
  • Sand down the excess until it is flush with the surface.From the entry flush
  • The diver pierced the surface of the water with scarcely a splash.From the entry pierce
  • Through media reports it percolated to the surface that the police investigation was profoundly flawed.From the entry percolate
  • We're going to greeble the surface of the model to give it a more convincing look.From the entry greeble
  • The diver took in lungfuls of air as he returned to the surface.From the entry lungful
  • A properly prepared surface is susceptible of an enduring paint job.From the entry susceptible
  • Weaknesses in the earth’s crust allow deep-seated heat to rise nearer to the surface.From the entry deep-seated
  • The plastic was a nonporous surface, so the ink couldn't sink in and stain it.From the entry nonporous

Meaning of surface

  1. noun The external boundary of an object or body.
  2. noun The overside or upside of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
  3. noun The outside hull of a tangible object.

Full definition of surface

Questions about surface in a sentence

How do you use surface in a sentence?
Surface is used as a noun and verb. For example: “On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.”
What is a short sentence with surface?
“The crew surfaced the road with bitumen.”
What does surface mean?
Surface means the external boundary of an object or body.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surface (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use surface in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/surface. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.