you can't judge a book by its cover

you can't judge a book by its cover proverb: it is not possible to make reliable judgments about things or people by considering external appearances alone.

Proverb

you can't judge a book by its cover

(figuratively, idiomatic) It is not possible to make reliable judgments about things or people by considering external appearances alone.

Synonyms:

clothes don't make the man, the cowl does not make the monk, all that glitters is not gold, looks can be deceiving, appearances are deceptive, don't just scratch the surface, Anything essential is invisible to the eyes, One sees clearly only with the heart, Other things besides cream float to the top

Antonyms:

clothes maketh the man, fine feathers make fine birds

you can't judge a book by its cover meaning in Urdu, Tagalog, Arabic and Vietnamese

you can't judge a book by its cover in Urdu

it is not possible to judge things by external appearances alone: ذات نہ پوچھو سادھو کی؛ پوچھ لیجئے علم zāt nā pūcho sādhu kī; pūch lījie ilm

you can't judge a book by its cover in Tagalog

it is not possible to judge things by external appearances alone: mapanlinlang ang panlabas na anyo

you can't judge a book by its cover in Arabic

it is not possible to judge things by external appearances alone: لَا تَحْكُم عَلَى كِتَابِ مِِنْ غِلَافِهِ lā taḥkum ʕalā kitābi miin ḡilāfihi

you can't judge a book by its cover in Vietnamese

it is not possible to judge things by external appearances alone: tốt gỗ hơn tốt nước sơn

Synonyms of you can't judge a book by its cover

clothes don't make the man
the cowl does not make the monk
all that glitters is not gold
looks can be deceiving
appearances are deceptive
don't just scratch the surface
Anything essential is invisible to the eyes
One sees clearly only with the heart
Other things besides cream float to the top

Antonyms

Forms of you can't judge a book by its cover

alternative form	you can't tell a book by its cover
alternative form	don't judge a book by its cover

Questions about you can't judge a book by its cover

What does you can't judge a book by its cover mean?: You can't judge a book by its cover means it is not possible to make reliable judgments about things or people by considering external appearances alone.
What is you can't judge a book by its cover in Urdu?: You can't judge a book by its cover in Urdu is ذات نہ پوچھو سادھو کی؛ پوچھ لیجئے علم (zāt nā pūcho sādhu kī; pūch lījie ilm). See You can't judge a book by its cover meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is you can't judge a book by its cover?: You can't judge a book by its cover is a proverb.

Words near you can't judge a book by its cover in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: you can't judge a book by its cover (page history and authors). 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-au-you can't judge a book by its cover.ogg.

Cite this entry: “you can't judge a book by its cover.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/you_can%27t_judge_a_book_by_its_cover. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.