Word of the Day: ostensible

The word ostensible has appeared in 58 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 2 in the book review “A Novel Depicts One Disordered Night in the Life of a Teenager” by Hermione Hoby:

The ostensible setting is an institution called Last Chance, a boarding school for troubled boys in a dilapidated old house in the countryside. With uncharacteristically printable eloquence, the usually profane Shy sees the building as being “hunched over the garden like a chunk of grumpy history.” Despite the best efforts of the saintly-patient staff, it’s a grim place, not least because “the boys just rip and rip at each other, endless patterns of attack and response, like flirting’s grim twin.”

The book’s true setting, however, is the sprawling, shifting terrain of Shy’s mind. Though the novel’s time frame is just a few hours of one night, it’s a night of “a shattered flicker-drag of these sense-jumbled memories” and one in which “the solid world dissolves then coheres like broken sleep, and he shambles into it, remembering.” In other words, the night’s as big as Shy’s life.

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word ostensible in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how ostensible can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.