ostensible

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But notes of disillusion sound throughout this ostensible success story.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

An ostensible crackdown on “waste, fraud and abuse” inside the Social Security Administration is making giving birth even more complicated for some Americans.

From Salon • Mar. 7, 2025

But the movie is more effective as a grim, involving cop thriller than it is as an ostensible statement on the Order’s reverberations in the present.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2024

The resulting document, released late last year, is something of a paradox—a list of ostensible directives that are couched in voluntary language, with nobody empowered to enforce them.

From Slate • Dec. 5, 2024

The ostensible reason was that the numbers were easily changed and falsified.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife