From Middle English semblaunce, from Old French semblance, from semblant, present participle of sembler.
semblance (countable and uncountable, plural semblances)
- likeness, similarity; the quality of being similar.
- the way something looks; appearance; form
1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2:
England, seated far north in the turbid sea, now visits my dreams in the semblance of a vast and well-manned ship, which mastered the winds and rode proudly over the waves.
- “semblance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “semblance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “semblance”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.