seem
pronunciation
How to pronounce seem in British English:
UK [siːm]
How to pronounce seem in American English:
US [siːm]
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- Verb:
- give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect
- seem to be true, probable, or apparent
- appear to exist
- appear to one's own mind or opinion
Word Origin
- seem
- seem: [12] Originally, seem meant ‘be suitable’ (a meaning preserved in the derived seemly [13]). It was borrowed from the Old Norse verb soema ‘conform to, honour’. This was derived from the adjective soemr ‘fitting’, a descendant of the prehistoric base *sōm- (to which English same is distantly related). The sense ‘appear to be’ emerged in the early 13th century.=> same, seemly, soft
- seem (v.)
- c. 1200, "to appear to be;" c. 1300, "to be fitting, be appropriate, be suitable," though the more recent sense in English is the etymological one; from Old Norse soema "to honor; to put up with; to conform to (the world, etc.)," verb derived from adjective soemr "fitting," from Proto-Germanic *somi- (cognates: Old English som "agreement, reconciliation," seman "to conciliate," source of Middle English semen "to settle a dispute," literally "to make one;" Old Danish some "to be proper or seemly"), from PIE *som-i-, from root *sem- "one, as one" (see same). Related: Seemed; seeming.
Example
- 1. Apple doesn 't seem to care .
- 2. Sales executives , he notes , seem to have a particular aversion to accomplishment-speak . "
- 3. Radiation just didn 't seem necessary .
- 4. And now its nokia deal makes it seem that much more inevitable .
- 5. He didn 't seem bothered : subtitles !