Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Readily seen; visible.
- adjective Readily understood; clear or obvious.
- adjective Appearing as such but not necessarily so; seeming.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Exposed to the sense of sight; open to view; capable of being seen, or easily seen; visible to the eye; within the range of vision.
- Capable of being clearly perceived or understood; obvious; plain or clear; evident: as, the wisdom of the Creator is apparent in his works.
- Having the character of a mere seeming or appearance, in distinction from what is true or real: as, the apparent motion of the sun; his anger was only apparent.
- Probable; likely: as, “the three apparent candidates,” H. Walpole.
- noun An heir apparent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Capable of being seen, or easily seen; open to view; visible to the eye; within sight or view.
- adjective Clear or manifest to the understanding; plain; evident; obvious; known; palpable; indubitable.
- adjective Appearing to the eye or mind (distinguished from, but not necessarily opposed to,
true orreal ); seeming; as theapparent motion or diameter of the sun. - adjective the circle which in a level plain bounds our view, and is formed by the apparent meeting of the earth and heavens, as distinguished from the
rational horizon. - adjective See
Time . - adjective (Law) one whose to an estate is indefeasible if he survives the ancestor; -- in distinction from
presumptive heir . SeePresumptive . - noun obsolete An heir apparent.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Capable of being seen, or easily seen; open to view; visible to the eye; within sight or view.
- adjective Clear or
manifest to the understanding; plain; evident; obvious; known; palpable; indubitable. - adjective Appearing to the eye or mind (distinguished from, but not necessarily opposed to, true or real); seeming.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective appearing as such but not necessarily so
- adjective clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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What they will do first is send a letter to each of those CEOs asking them to explain what they call apparent discrepancies.
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The United Democratic Movement (UDM) on Friday said it was dismayed by what it termed the apparent negligence and poor police work in the Justice Department.
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Instances are easily producible of that extreme contrariety of ideas, one with another, which the contemplation of the Universe forces upon our acceptance, making it clear to us that there is nothing irrational in submitting to undeniable incompatibilities, which we call apparent, only because, if they were not apparent but real, they could not co-exist.
The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin John Henry Newman 1845
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Human Rights Watch called for an investigation of what it described as an "apparent mass execution."
USATODAY.com News 2011
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Reuters has noted what it called the apparent contradiction between the earlier and later reports.
BBC News - Home 2011
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Violanti tried to get Boller to either give Crawford only weekends in jail or delay her jailing, but the judge had her taken into custody in his Buffalo courtroom, citing what he called her apparent lack of honesty in coming to grips with her drinking problems.
buffalonews - Home 2010
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When word of the new romance got out, some media observers joked about what they called his apparent obsession with glamorous young TV reporters.
latimes.com - News 2010
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When word of the new romance got out, some media observers joked about what they called his apparent obsession with glamorous young TV reporters.
latimes.com - News 2010
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UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. sanctions committee expressed "grave concern" Thursday about what it called apparent Iranian violations of a U.N. ban on uranium enrichment plant as world powers united against
WN.com - Articles related to EU, US back new Iran nuclear sanctions 2009
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Rcfleftion (the Texture only modifies it) as to be an occafion of fucli a Sentiment; in this fenfe all Colours are real, even thofe which they call apparent, or elfe how come they to appear?
An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal Or Intelligible World. Design'd for ... 1704
skipvia commented on the word apparent
"Police were trying Tuesday to piece together the violent events inside a brick home where six people were found dead in an apparent mass shooting."
How many victims does it take to make it an obvious mass shooting?
March 5, 2008
reesetee commented on the word apparent
I think it takes one lawyer. Never mind the number of victims. :-\
March 5, 2008
bilby commented on the word apparent
Good point skip.
June 2, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word apparent
I think skipvia's comment is an example of what I want to ask here:
Is the use of apparent sensu WordNet #1 (see also citation on elbow) clear to a listener? Or will he/she think that I mean as far as I can judge?
"The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language" states:
Used before a noun, apparent means "seeming": For all his apparent wealth, Pat had no money to pay the rent. Used after a form of the verb be, however, apparent can mean either "seeming" (as in His virtues are only apparent) or "obvious" (as in The effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who sees the parched fields). One should take care that the intended meaning is clear from the context.
November 27, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word apparent
In a predicative position, I think "obvious" is the more likely meaning, and contexts are typically things like 'The reason is apparent'. When you qualify it with 'only', or contrast it with 'real' ('What is apparent is not always real') you force it into the "seeming" meaning.
November 27, 2008
rolig commented on the word apparent
The question is: to what extent can we trust appearances? "His wealth was apparent" means that there was visible evidence of his wealth. In "Despite his apparent wealth, he always complained about how much everything cost," the meaning is the same: "despite the visible evidence of his wealth...". The words blatant, obvious, conspicuous, evident, apparent, seeming, superficial, etc. all denote pretty much the same thing: the quality of being perceptible; the difference between them is the degree to which the speaker trusts that what is perceived in fact corresponds to reality. In the order I have listed these words, the attitude of the speaker goes from unquestioning trust (if we say something is blatant, we don't doubt what we see) to total skepticism.
November 27, 2008