also: ぱっとみ
at a glance; from appearances
Casual expression used when making a quick judgment based on first sight or surface impression. Often used adverbially as パッと見(で).
At a glance it looks easy, but it's actually a difficult problem.
I could tell at a glance that he was a foreigner.
Hiragana variant; less common but still encountered.
Combination of the mimetic adverb パッと (suddenly, quickly) and 見 (seeing). The exact origin is uncertain, but it likely arose as a colloquial expression for a quick visual impression.