Other forms: seems, seemed, seeming
Seem is how a thing looks from outside, with no promise that it is true. He seems tired. The house seemed empty, and then a light came on upstairs.
Seem is a linking verb, so it takes an adjective and not an adverb: he seems happy, never he seems happily. The patterns worth learning by heart are seem plus adjective, seem to be, seem like a something, and the empty-it version — it seems that nobody told her. Seem has no -ing form in ordinary use, so he is seeming tired is wrong and he seems tired is the only way to say it. It is also a politeness tool, softening a claim you would rather not make flatly: there seems to be a problem with your card lands better than there is one. Appear is the formal twin, and look and sound do the same work through one sense each — it looks expensive, that sounds expensive.
1verbseemTo give the impression of being something, whether or not it is so.~39%
“She seemed calm, but her hands were shaking.”
synonyms: appear
2verbcaseTo be the case as far as anybody can tell.~59%
“It seems that the last train has been cancelled.”
3verbsoftenUsed to soften a statement about yourself or an awkward fact.~2%
“I do not seem to have my keys on me.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 10 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: appear
Seem came from Old Norse sœma, to befit or be becoming, and entered Middle English as semen. Behind it is Proto-Germanic *sōmijaną, to unite or fit, from the Proto-Indo-European root *sem-, meaning one or whole — the root that also gives same and similar. What seems a certain way is what fits that description from where you stand.
Proto-Indo-European
*sem- — one; whole
Proto-Germanic
*sōmijaną — to unite, fit
Old Norse
sœma — to conform to, beseem, befit
Middle English
semen — to seem, befit, be becoming
English, today
seem
From Middle English semen (“to seem, befit, be becoming”), from Old Norse sœma (“to conform to, beseem, befit”), from Proto-Germanic sōmijaną (“to unite, fit”), from Proto-Indo-European sem- (“one; whole”). Cognate with Scots seme (“to be fitting; beseem”), Danish sømme (“to beseem”), gmq-osw søma, Faroese søma (“to be proper”). Related also to Old Norse sómi (“honour”) (> archaic Danish somme (“decent comportment”)), Old Norse sœmr (“fitting, seemly”), Old English sēman (“to reconcile, bring an agreement”), Old English sōm (“agreement”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA