ostensible
os-TEN-suh-buladjMeaning stated or seeming to be true, but perhaps not the real thing
Memory hook it SOUNDS SENSIBLE: o-STEN-SIBLE. Dev says he is visiting Nana Lou to fix her clock, which sounds sensible, but his eyes are on her cookies; fixing the clock is his ostensible reason.
The ostensible reason for his visit was to return a book, but he stayed for three helpings of pie.
In context Her ostensible purpose in calling was to ask about homework, but it soon became clear that she really wanted to know who was going to the dance.
Similar apparent, seeming, supposed, professed
Opposite real, actual, genuine
From Latin ostendere, “to show, to hold out for view”: the ostensible reason is the one held up for show.