different between seem vs appears

English

Alternative forms

• seme (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English semen (“to seem, befit, be becoming”), from Old Norse sœma (“to conform to, beseem, befit”), from Proto-Germanic *s?mijan? (“to unite, fit”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; whole”). Cognate with Scots seme (“to be fitting; beseem”), Danish sømme (“to beseem”), Old Swedish søma, Faroese søma (“to be proper”). Related also to Old Norse sómi (“honour”) ( > archaic Danish somme (“decent comportment”)), Old Norse sœmr (“fitting, seemly”), Old English s?man (“to reconcile, bring an agreement”), Old English s?m (“agreement”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si?m/
• Rhymes: -i?m
• Homophones: seam, seme

Verb

seem (third-person singular simple present seems, present participle seeming, simple past and past participle seemed)

1. (copulative) To appear; to look outwardly; to be perceived as.
   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Plays?

     He is so fair, without lease, he seems full well to sit on this.

   • 1813 (14^thc.), Dante Alighieri, The Vision of Hell as translated by The Rev. H. F. Cary.

     He, from his face removing the gross air, / Oft his left hand forth stretch'd, and seem'd alone / By that annoyance wearied.
2. (obsolete) To befit; to beseem.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Derived terms

• meseems
• seeming
• seemingly
• seemly
• seemlihood
• seemliness

Translations

Anagrams

• Esme, Esmé, emes, mese, seme, semé, smee

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch s?m, from Proto-Germanic *saimaz.

Noun

sêem m

1. honey

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: zeem
• West Flemish: zêem

Further reading

• “seem”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “seem”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p??z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??p??z/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /??pi??z/
• Rhymes: -??(?)z
• Hyphenation: ap?pears

Verb

appears

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of appear
   • 1846, George Luxford, Edward Newman, The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany: Volume 2, Part 2, page 474

     It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude.

Anagrams

• sappare