superficial

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

adj. shallow, cursory, dilettante, slight, slender, trivial, inane; surface, skin-deep. See exterior, shallowness, ignorance.Ant., in-depth, serious.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

Syn. flimsy, cursory, perfunctory, hasty, desultory, shallow, summary, short-sighted, purblind, ignorant, narrow-minded, prejudiced, warped, partial, surface, cosmetic, skin-deep, untrustworthy, outward, external, exterior, unenlightened.

Ant. learned*, deep, profound.

Syn.- superficial implies concern with the obvious or surface aspects of a thing [superficial characteristics ] and, in a derogatory sense, lack of thoroughness, profoundness, significance, etc. [superficial judgments ] ; shallow , in this connection always derogatory, implies a lack of depth, as of character, intellect, or meaning [shallow writing ] ; cursory , which may or may not be derogatory, suggests a brief or hasty consideration of something without pausing to note details [ a cursory inspection ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) a.

1. surface exterior, outer, external, outside, outward, peripheral, skin-deep, cosmetic.

2. shallow obvious, apparent, lacking depth, minimal, not profound.

3. quick cursory, perfunctory, hasty, slapdash, hurried, slight.

4. frivolous shallow, featherbrained, unprofound, silly.

ANT.: 1. internal, inner, deep. 2. deep, profound. 3. thorough, careful, complete. 4. serious, deep, profound

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) adjective 1. Lacking in intellectual depth or thoroughness: cursory, one-dimensional, shallow, sketchy, skin-deep, uncritical. See SURFACE. 2. Appearing as such but not necessarily so: apparent, external, ostensible, ostensive, outward, seeming. See SURFACE.