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What is the difference between emerge and appear?

emerge | appear |

In intransitive terms the difference between emerge and appear

is that emerge is to become known while appear is to become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.

In intransitive copulative terms the difference between emerge and appear

is that emerge is to come out of a situation, object or a liquid while appear is to seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.

emerge

English

Verb

(emerg)
  • (label) To come into view.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black)
  • , chapter=2, title= Internal Combustion , passage=Throughout the 1500s, the populace roiled over a constellation of grievances of which the forest emerged as a key focal point. The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 10, author=Jeremy Wilson, work=Telegraph
  • , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , passage=With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.}}
  • To come out of a situation, object or a liquid.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=Anna Lena Phillips, volume=100, issue=2, page=172, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Sneaky Silk Moths , passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}
  • (label) To become known.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.}}

    Synonyms

    * come forth, forthcome * heave in sight

    appear

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
  • * 1611 , (w) 1:9:
  • And Godthe dry land appear .
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jeremy Bernstein), volume=100, issue=2, page=146, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= A Palette of Particles , passage=There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared . Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.}}
  • (label) To come before the public.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
  • (label) To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like; to present one's self as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
  • * 1611 , 5:10:
  • We must all appear before the judgment seat.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomas Babington Macaulay):
  • One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear .
  • (label) To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
  • * 1611 , 3:2:
  • It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
  • * (rfdate) (John Milton):
  • Of their vain contest appeared no end.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]?  Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , author= Philip J. Bushnell , title= Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance , passage=Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene,
  • To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
  • * 1611 , (w) 6:16:
  • They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.}}

    Usage notes

    * Senses 4, 5. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * (seem) look

    Antonyms

    * (to become visible) disappear, vanish