surface

Syllables: sur·face/ˈsɜː.fɪs/

surface noun: the external boundary of an object or body.

Image: StuRat, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

surface (plural surfaces)

The external boundary of an object or body.
The overside or upside of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
- A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- Use the lowest light level required. 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
The 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. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
(figuratively) Outward or external appearance.
- On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.
- Such characters as have nothing but external accompliſhments to recommend them, may indeed be greatly admired and approved by vain and weak underſtandings, which penetrate no deeper than the ſurface; but they are deſpiſed by all the truly ſenſible, and pitied by all the truly good.1782, Vicesimus Knox, “On knowing the world at an early age”, in Liberal education: […], 4th edition, London: Charles Dilly […], pages 393–394
The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a space of more than two dimensions.
(crosswording) The 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. But in this case it deviously refers to an animal that feeds by browsing, which is a longer standing use of the word.2018 December 7, Bryan Lawson, The Design Student's Journey: understanding How Designers Think, Routledge, →ISBN
A portion of the display to which graphics can be rendered.
- The video player algorithm requires a target surface.

Verb

surface (third-person singular simple present surfaces, present participle surfacing, simple past and past participle surfaced)

(transitive) To provide with a surface; to apply a surface to.
- The crew surfaced the road with bitumen.
(intransitive) To 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
(transitive) To 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
(figuratively, intransitive) To come out of hiding.
- The company believes the stolen chocolate bars could surface through unofficial sales channels across European markets.2026 March 29, “Someone stole 413,793 KitKat bars and an entire truck in Europe”, in syracuse.com
(intransitive, facts, content, etc) To become known or apparent; to appear or be found; to come to light.
- Subordinate clauses, by contrast, exhibit V1 or V2 only around 35% of the time, with the verb usually surfacing later.2013, George Walkden, “The status of hwæt in Old English”, in English Language and Linguistics, volume 17, number 3, →DOI
- They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.2024 May 24, Keith Habersberger, "The Try Guys Tell All" (video on Anthony Padilla's YouTube channel), 5:20
(transitive) To make (information, facts, content, etc) known.
- They're not growing. Why would I surface them to new people? [...That] makes our video surface less, and that makes the next video surface less.2024 May 24, Keith Habersberger, "The Try Guys Tell All" (video on Anthony Padilla's YouTube channel), 5:20
(intransitive) To work a mine near the surface.

Proper noun capitalized: Surface

Surface (plural Surfaces)

A surname.

surface meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

surface in Hindi

up-side of a flat object: तल tal

surface in Tamil

பரப்பு, மேற்பரப்பு, புறப்பரப்பு, மேற்றளம், மற்பரப்பு

surface in Marathi

पृष्ठभाग

surface in Urdu

surface: صفحہ safha
surface, layer: طبقہ tabaqa
surface, ground: زمین zamīn

More languagesFewer languages

surface in Bengali: উপর upor, ক্ষেত্র khetro
surface in Telugu: ఉపరితలం uparitalaṁ
surface in Malayalam: ഉപരിതലം uparitalaṁ
surface in Kannada: ಮೇಲ್ಮೈ, ಮುಖ, ಹೊರಮೈ, ಮೇಲ್ಪದರ
surface in Punjabi: ਸਤਹ, ਸਤ੍ਹਾ, ਸਤਹਿ
surface in Gujarati: સપાટી
surface in Odia: ପୃଷ୍ଠଭାଗ
surface in Sanskrit: प्रतीक pratīka
surface in Sinhala: මතුපිට matupiṭa
surface in Assamese: পিঠি pithi
surface in Nepali: सतह
surface in Tagalog: dayag, karayagan
surface in Arabic: سَطْح saṭḥ, طفا إلى السطح
surface in Malay: permukaan
surface in Indonesian: permukaan
surface in Thai: พื้นผิว pʉ́ʉn-pǐu
surface in Vietnamese: mặt, bề mặt

Examples of surface in a sentence

The metal surface showed signs of abrasion after years of use.
If the mix is too fluid, the ags can sink away from the surface.
There’s nothing more thrilling to the whale watcher than to see a whale surface and blow.

All 40 example sentences with surface

Synonyms of surface

Forms of surface

Noun
plural	surfaces
Verb
third-person singular present	surfaces
present participle	surfacing
past participle	surfaced
past	surfaced
Proper noun
plural	Surfaces

Past tense of surface: surfaced

Plural of surface: surfaces

Origin of surface

Borrowed from Middle French surface. By surface analysis, sur- + face. Doublet of superficies.

Words formed from surface

Phrases with surface

75 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about surface

What does surface mean?: Surface means the external boundary of an object or body.
What is surface in Hindi?: Surface in Hindi is तल (tal). See Surface meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is surface?: Surface can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce surface?: Surface is pronounced /ˈsɜː.fɪs/.
What is the plural of surface?: The plural of surface is surfaces.

Words near surface in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: surface (page history and authors); Surface (page history and authors); surface (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); surface (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); زمین (Urdu) (page history and authors); উপর (Bengali) (page history and authors); surface (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); surface (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); surface (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); surface (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); পিঠি (Assamese) (page history and authors); surface (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-surface.ogg.

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