{
  "id": "surface.exterior",
  "term": "surface",
  "sense": "exterior",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 4,
  "arena": "physical",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "A part of a boundary that touches a thing and is where the thing is not the thing.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "boundary.limit",
      "touch.together",
      "part.relation"
    ],
    "interaction": "When a boundary limit is touched by another thing, and a part of it stands in relation to that thing, exterior surface emerges at the place where the thing is not the thing.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "facing aspect",
      "interaction perimeter",
      "non-internal interface"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The event horizon of a black hole traps light but emits Hawking radiation at 10^-8 K for a solar-mass hole.",
      "domain": "physics"
    },
    {
      "text": "A human epidermis regenerates every 4 weeks, forming a barrier that is not alive but made by living cells.",
      "domain": "biology"
    },
    {
      "text": "The rusted hull of the RMS Titanic dissolves into the Atlantic floor, where iron-eating bacteria colonize the metal surface.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "side.surface",
      "type": "is-a",
      "note": "a surface is a kind of side"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "applying.action",
    "beach.geographic",
    "board.material",
    "color.visual",
    "display.visual",
    "face.body",
    "flat.commonsurfacegeometry",
    "land.geography",
    "level.spatial",
    "marks.visual",
    "page.sheet",
    "papering-over-the-cracks.upkeep",
    "pictures.visual",
    "press.force",
    "sand.material",
    "screen.visual",
    "street.path",
    "table.furniture",
    "visual.perceptual",
    "windows.opening",
    "write.communication"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "surface",
    "surfaces"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Added 'part.relation' to components to align with definition's reliance on 'part of a boundary'. Definition kept intact as it correctly describes emergence from components."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-surface.exterior"
}