surface
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɜːfɪs/
ipa: /ˈsɝːfəs/
note: Indic
ipa: /sə(r)ˈfes/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈsɜ(r).fəs/
Forms: form: surfaces
Etymology: From French surface. Doublet of superficies.
Senses: examples: text: A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: Use the lowest light level required. Be mindful of surface conditions, as some surfaces may reflect more light into the night sky than was intended.
ref: 2020 June 1, DarkSky International, Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting:
glosses: The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
examples: text: Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
ref: 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:
text: [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: The outside hull of a tangible object.
examples: text: On the surface, the spy looked like a typical businessman.
text: Such characters as have nothing but external accompliſhments to recommend them, may indeed be greatly admired and approved by vain and weak underſtandings, which penetrate no deeper than the ſurface; but they are deſpiſed by all the truly ſenſible, and pitied by all the truly good.
ref: 1782, Vicesimus Knox, “On knowing the world at an early age”, in Liberal education: […], 4th edition, London: Charles Dilly […], pages 393–394:
text: “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,[…].
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Outward or external appearance.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a space of more than two dimensions.
examples: text: The surface is clearly about people like you and me, those whose better days are behind us and who now shop at M&S.
ref: 2010 May 3, Sandy Balfour, “Beginner's guide to solving cryptic crosswords”, in The Guardian:
text: If you are fooled by the surface you start thinking about internet browsers. But in this case it deviously refers to an animal that feeds by browsing, which is a longer standing use of the word.
ref: 2018 December 7, Bryan Lawson, The Design Student's Journey: understanding How Designers Think, Routledge, →ISBN:
text: This clue with a booze-related surface uses “sandwich” wordplay, with an insertion of P from “priceless” into “lean to”, which the Oxford Dictionary of English lists as an alternative to “lean towards”, meaning the same as “incline to”.
ref: 2024 June 4, Peter Biddlecombe, “Sunday Times clue writing contest 2020: Lepanto”, in Sunday Times:
qualifier: crosswording
glosses: The story or image suggested by a cryptic clue, when read as a whole sentence without considering wordplay.
Synonyms: word: overside
word: superfice
Derived terms: air-to-surface
air-to-surface missile
Alfven surface
Alfvén surface
antisurface
archaeosurface
attack surface
bedding surface
below the surface
beneath the surface
Catalan surface
caustic surface
cavosurface
conical surface
control surface
countersurface
datum surface
desurface
detectable warning surface
developable surface
Earth Surface Person
earth surface person
Earth surface person
eigensurface
equipotential surface
ergosurface
faying surface
Fermi surface
Fréchet surface
free surface
Gaussian surface
heating surface
Hurwitz surface
hypersurface
intersurface
isosurface
Kummer surface
land surface
land-surface
last scattering surface
lateral surface
metasurface
microsurface
midsurface
minimal surface
Morin surface
multisurface
nanosurface
near surface
near-surface
nonsurface
on the surface
overspray surface texture
palaeosurface
paleosurface
pseudosurface
resurface
Riemann surface
ruled surface directrix
scratch below the surface
scratch beneath the surface
scratch the surface
sea surface
sea-surface
Seifert surface
skew surface
streamsurface
sub-surface
subsurface
subway-surface
surfaceable
surface-active
surface analysis
surface area
surface boundary layer
surface car
surface clutter
surface combatant
surface-conduction electron-emitter display
surface discharge
surface-dwelling
surface energy
surface etymology
surface finish
surface gravity
surface integral
surface interval
surface layer
surface lease
surfaceless
surface-level
surface lift
surfacely
surface mail
surfaceman
surface-mount
surface mount
surface mounted
surface mounted technology
surface mount technology
surface-mount technology
surface noise
surface normal
surface of revolution
surfaceome
surface patch
surface plasmon
surface quality
surfacer
surface runoff
surface ship
surface street
surface structure
surface-supplied diving
surface tension
surface-to-air
surface-to-air missile
surface-to-surface
surface-to-surface missile
surfaceward
surfacewards
surface water
surface web
surface Web
surfacic
surfacism
surfacy
surfel
surfome
tactile ground surface indicator
tactile walking surface indicator
undersurface
under the surface
worksurface
work surface
Related terms: surficial