appearing as such but not necessarily so; "for all his apparent wealth he had no money to pay the rent"; "the committee investigated some apparent discrepancies"; "the ostensible truth of their theories"; "his seeming honesty"
Ostensible is used to describe something that seems to be true or is officially stated to be true, but about which you or other people have doubts. The ostensible purpose of these meetings was to gather information on financial strategies. = alleged + ostensibly os·ten·sibly ostensibly independent organisations. seeming to be the reason for or the purpose of something, but usually hiding the real reason or purpose ostensible reason/purpose/aim (ostendere )