What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Appear vs Happen - What's the difference?

appear | happen |

As verbs the difference between appear and happen

is that appear is to come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible while happen is to occur or take place.

As an adverb happen is

obsolete or dialect maybe, perhaps.

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

    happen

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To occur or take place.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}
  • To occur unexpectedly, by chance or with a low probability.
  • To encounter by chance.
  • * 1860 , , The Marble Faun , ch. 30:
  • Unexpectedly, in a nook close by the farmhouse, he happened upon a spot where the vintage had actually commenced.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Derived terms

    * as it happens * happen along * happener * happeningly * it so happens

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (obsolete or dialect) maybe, perhaps.
  • English catenative verbs 1000 English basic words ----