Meaning

noun an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

noun an erroneous mental representation

noun picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing

originFrom Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; condition or fact of being apparent; symbolic image; facial expression, countenance; conduct, manner; image, likeness; analogy, comparison”), from Anglo-Norman semblaunce and Old French semblance (modern French semblance), from semblant, the present participle of sembler (“to appear; to resemble, seem”), from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0