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.

Like that movie, “Remake” has an ostensible central subject that becomes a mere frame for his actual one.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026

Decades of relying on the rules of an ostensible meritocracy, however, have proven one thing: that it's an illusory social ideal.

From Salon • Jan. 30, 2025

Creamer said there have been no indications that immigrants in Kern County were responsible for a wave of violent crime, the ostensible justification for the raids.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 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

In the following chapters we will see time and again how a dramatic increase in the collective power and ostensible success of our species went hand in hand with much individual suffering.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari