Prima Facie - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Adverb
    • 1.3.1 Derived terms
    • 1.3.2 Related terms
    • 1.3.3 Translations
  • 1.4 Adjective
    • 1.4.1 Usage notes
    • 1.4.2 Translations
• 2 Spanish Toggle Spanish subsection
  • 2.1 Adverb
  • 2.2 Further reading

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• Discussion

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:prima facieWikipedia

Etymology

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From Latin prīmā (“first”) + faciē (“shape, figure”), literally “at the first appearance.”

Pronunciation

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• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹiː.mə ˈfeɪ.siː/, /ˈpɹaɪ-/, /-ʃiː/, /-ʃə/
• (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈpɹiː.mə ˈfæɪ.siː/, /ˈpɹɑɪ-/, /-ʃiː/, /-ʃə/

Adverb

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prima facie (comparative more prima facie, superlative most prima facie)

1. (law) At first sight; on the face of it. Synonyms: apparently, seemingly; see also Thesaurus:ostensibly
   • 1871, Gail Hamilton, Gala-days, page 191:[…] the nicest young man that ever was, — daintily gloved, patently booted, oilily curled, snowily wristbanded, with a lovely cambric (prima facie) handkerchief bound about his hyacinthine locks and polished hat.
   • 1916 April 8, The National Provisioner, volume 54, number 15, page 36, column 2:Prima facie this may not read like a true story.

Derived terms

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• prima faciality

Related terms

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• ex facie

Translations

[edit] at first sight

Chinese: Mandarin: 從表面上看 / 从表面上看 (cóng biǎomiàn shàng kàn) Finnish: ensinäkemältä, ensisilmäyksellä French: prima facie (fr) Hindi: प्रथम दृष्ट्या (pratham dŕṣṭyā)

Adjective

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prima facie (not comparable)

1. (law) Apparently correct; not needing proof unless evidence to the contrary is shown. Synonyms: immediate, indubitable, self-evident; see also Thesaurus:obvious
   • 2020, Alex Garland, 17:59 from the start, in Devs, season 1, episode 5, spoken by Lecturer (Liz Carr):We conclude that the single photon is somehow interacting with itself. And now we have prima facie evidence of the superposition of quantum particles, that they can exist in more than one place at the same time.

Usage notes

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• In common usage, often used to mean that the conclusion is obvious (a prima facie counterexample to your hypothesis). In more narrow legal usage, it means rather that there is a case to answer – that the question is clear, but the conclusion is not necessarily obvious.

Translations

[edit] apparently correct

Chinese: Mandarin: 初步的 (chūbù de), 初步證明的 / 初步证明的 (chūbù zhèngmíng de), 表面的 (biǎomiàn de) Finnish: alustavasti oikea, lähtökohtaisesti oikea French: prima facie (fr)

Spanish

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Adverb

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prima facie

1. (law) prima facie

Further reading

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• “prima facie”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=prima_facie&oldid=88955625" Categories:

• English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰeh₁-
• English terms derived from Latin
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• English multiword terms
• en:Law
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• English adjectives
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• es:Law

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