superficiality

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Related to superficiality: expedite

su·per·fi·cial

(so͞o′pər-fĭsh′əl)

adj.

1. Of, affecting, or being on or near the surface: a superficial wound.

2. Concerned with or comprehending only what is apparent or obvious; shallow: wrote him off as superficial.

3. Apparent rather than actual or substantial: a superficial resemblance between the two films.

4. Not extensive or important; minor or insignificant: made only a few superficial changes in the manuscript.

[Middle English, from Old French superficiel, from Latin superficiālis, from superficiēs, surface; see superficies.]

su′per·fi′ci·al′i·ty (-fĭsh′ē-ăl′ĭ-tē), su′per·fi′cial·ness (-fĭsh′əl-nĭs) n.

su′per·fi′cial·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun	1.	superficiality - lack of depth of knowledge or thought or feeling shallowness depth - degree of psychological or intellectual profundity glibness, slickness - a kind of fluent easy superficiality; "the glibness of a high-pressure salesman" sciolism - pretentious superficiality of knowledge profundity, profoundness - intellectual depth; penetrating knowledge; keen insight; etc; "the depth of my feeling"; "the profoundness of the silence"
	2.	superficiality - shallowness in terms of affecting only surface layers of something; "he ignored the wound because of its superficiality" shallowness - the quality of lacking physical depth; "take into account the shallowness at that end of the pool before you dive"

superficiality

noun shallowness, lack of depth, lack of substance, emptiness, triviality the superficiality of the judgements we make when we first meet people

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

سَطْحِيَّه

povrchnost

overfladiskhed

Oberflächlichkeit

superficialité

felszínesség

yfirborîsháttur

yüzeysellik

肤浅表面性

superficiality

[ˌsuːpəˌfɪʃɪˈælɪtɪ] N → superficialidad f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

superficiality

[ˌsuːpə^rfɪʃiˈæləti] n

(= shallowness) [person, place] → superficialité f

(= lack of depth) [analysis, judgement, book] → superficialité f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

superficiality

n (of person, behaviour, injury, treatment, knowledge) → Oberflächlichkeit f; (of characteristics, resemblance) → Äußerlichkeit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

superficiality

[ˌsuːpəfɪʃɪˈælɪtɪ] n → superficialità

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

superficial

(suːpəˈfiʃəl) adjective

1. on, or affecting, the surface only. The wound is only superficial.

2. not thorough. He has only a superficial knowledge of the subject.

ˈsuperˌficiˈality (-ʃiˈӕ-) noun

ˌsuperˈficially adverb

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Vronsky had several times already, though not so resolutely as now, tried to bring her to consider their position, and every time he had been confronted by the same superficiality and triviality with which she met his appeal now.

View in context

With smiling ease, apologetically, Weeks tore to pieces all that Hayward had said; with elaborate civility he displayed the superficiality of his attainments.

View in context

I found that while among them there was a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was also a superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me.

View in context

I was surprised, considering the fierce struggle in the forecastle, at the superficiality of his hurts, and I pride myself that I dressed them dexterously.

View in context

When we went in, and I had removed her bonnet and coat, I took her on my knee; kept her there an hour, allowing her to prattle as she liked: not rebuking even some little freedoms and trivialities into which she was apt to stray when much noticed, and which betrayed in her a superficiality of character, inherited probably from her mother, hardly congenial to an English mind.

View in context

"The narrowness and superficiality of the Anglo-Saxon tourist is nothing less than a menace."

View in context

[Footnote: Macaulay's well-known essay on Bacon is marred by Macaulay's besetting faults of superficiality and dogmatism and is best left unread.] Francis Bacon, intellectually one of the most eminent Englishmen of all times, and chief formulator of the methods of modern science, was born in 1561 (three years before Shakspere), the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Elizabeth and one of her most trusted earlier advisers.

View in context

The inevitable superficiality of the rabble is contrasted with the peaceful and profound depths of the anchorite.

View in context

A world that is dominated by the superficiality of social media.

We need to embrace spirit of D-Day heroes

The massification of data and opinion in online space may have been a boon but this kind of breadth has also spawned superficiality on a scale never before experienced by humanity.

Depth

Anastasiades seems to be advertising his political superficiality, ensuring in the process that nobody will take him seriously.

Our View: Anastasiades seems to be advertising his political superficiality

Corporatist/socialist establishments (with massive state debts burdening generations to come) with monopolistic access to our pockets can only indulge in the superficiality of big high-profile spending.