appearance一词的一般含义有：外观；外表；出现；外貌等。

在法律英语中，appearance 的确有不同于以上含义的特殊法律含义。

作为法律庭审英语和诉讼英语中常见的一个表达，appearance在法律层面下有两种特殊的法律含义：

1. appearance可以表示“出庭、应诉”。

（1，coming into court; the formal act by which a defendant submits to the jurisdiction of a court.）

例如：

appearance bail

出庭保释金

appearance day

应诉日

appearance docket

到庭记录

appearance fee

应诉费，即在呈交申明应诉〔entering an appearance〕的书状时由法庭书记官收取的费用。

Whereas, under the prior system, appeal proceedings were largely based on written submissions and did not include the examination of witnesses, the new system requires the appearance of Legal Officers at numerous hearings before the judges, which involves many hours of preparation prior to each hearing, including the time taken to prepare witnesses.

在以前的制 度下，上诉程序主要是基于书面提交的材料，并没有包括对证人的讯问，而新制度则需要法律干事出席法官主持的多次听证，每次需要提前几个小时准备，包括 为证人做准备的时间。

2. appearance 还可以表示“应诉书”。

（2. document identifying one who is representing himself or another. An attorney files an "appearance", making it known to the court and the other parties that she/he is representing a specific individual.）

除这两种特殊含义外，appearance 在苏格拉法律中还有一个表达叫：appearance heir，即“表见继承人”，指有权继承土地但仍未进占土地的人。