appeal
Other forms: appealed; appeals; appealing
Appeal means "to ask, or address." If you appeal to someone's better nature, you're asking them for mercy. If a shirt doesn't appeal to you, you could also say it doesn't "speak" to you, or more simply, you don't like it.
Appeal can also be used as a noun to refer to a request, as in "his parents ignored his appeal for a later curfew," or to refer to something's attractiveness or desirability, as in "we all agreed on the appeal of a tropical vacation." In judicial contexts, appeal means "to call upon a higher court to review a lower court's decision." If a lawyer appeals a court's conviction of her client, she's asking a higher court to throw the decision out. This word descends from the Latin appellare, "to address, call upon."
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earnest or urgent request“an appeal for help”“an appeal to the public to keep calm”
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types:
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adjuration
a solemn and earnest appeal to someone to do something
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demagoguery, demagogy
impassioned appeals to the prejudices and emotions of the populace
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plea, supplication
a humble request for help from someone in authority
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solicitation
an entreaty addressed to someone of superior status
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suit
a petition or appeal made to a person of superior status or rank
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courting, courtship, suit, wooing
a man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a woman (usually with the hope of marriage)
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flag waving, jingoism
an appeal intended to arouse patriotic emotions
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beggary, begging, mendicancy
a solicitation for money or food (especially in the street by an apparently penniless person)
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touch
the act of soliciting money (as a gift or loan)
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importunity, urgency, urging
insistent solicitation and entreaty
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bundling
a onetime custom during courtship of unmarried couples occupying the same bed without undressing
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request for a sum of money“an appeal to raise money for starving children”
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synonyms:
collection, ingathering, solicitation
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types:
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whip-round
(British) solicitation of money usually for a benevolent purpose
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type of:
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petition, postulation, request
a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority
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whip-round
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request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection“appeal to somebody for help”
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synonyms:
invoke
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(law) a legal proceeding in which the appellant resorts to a higher court for the purpose of obtaining a review of a lower court decision and a reversal of the lower court's judgment or the granting of a new trial“their appeal was denied in the superior court”
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type of:
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legal proceeding, proceeding, proceedings
(law) the institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked
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legal proceeding, proceeding, proceedings
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take a court case to a higher court for review“He was found guilty but appealed immediately”
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type of:
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challenge
issue a challenge to
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challenge
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challenge (a decision)“She appealed the verdict”
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type of:
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challenge, take exception
raise a formal objection in a court of law
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challenge, take exception
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cite as an authority; resort to
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attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates“his smile was part of his appeal to her”
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synonyms:
appealingness, charm
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types:
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siren call, siren song
the enticing appeal of something alluring but potentially dangerous
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winsomeness
childlike charm or appeal
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type of:
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attractiveness
sexual allure
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siren call, siren song
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be attractive to
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(rhetoric) a method or mode of persuasion
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type of:
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persuasion, suasion
the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action
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persuasion, suasion
/əˈpil/
/əˈpil/
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Vocabulary lists containing appeal
When riots break out in Los Angeles, sixth-grader Jordan Park decides he must go to his family's store to protect his father.
In this first book of the Samurai Detective series set in 18th-century Japan, Konoike Seikei, a tea merchant’s son dreaming of becoming a noble warrior-poet, helps a judge solve the mystery of a missing jewel.
When eleven-year-old Tokunbo Marshall moves with her mother into a Harlem brownstone, she must adjust to an extended family that includes three new sisters who see everything in life as a possible project in their self-designed education.
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