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

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