apparent
- 1Easily understood or recognized as true, plainly evident and beyond reasonable doubt.
It soon became apparent that the original plan would never work.
Her growing frustration was apparent to everyone in the room.
Similarobvious, clear, evident, plain, manifest
Oppositeunclear, obscure, hidden
Note
This meaning is most at home after a verb: it became at once apparent that, as Bram Stoker writes in Dracula (1897), or apparent to everyone in the room. Before a noun the word now tends to hedge, drifting toward the "seeming" meaning. Shakespeare's "apparent foul-play" in King John means foul play plain to see, yet a modern reader might take it as merely suspected.
- 2Seeming to be the case as it presents to the eye or mind, though not necessarily true or real.
Despite her apparent calm, she was deeply worried underneath.
The apparent ease of his victory hid years of hard practice.
Similarseeming, outward, ostensible, superficial
Oppositereal, actual, genuine, true
Note
Astronomy gives this sense its exact edge. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica describes the apparent motion of stars, which arises because light travels at a finite speed while the observer moves with the earth. Nothing about such motion is false. It is simply the view from where we stand. Everyday prose uses the word as a gentler hedge, as in Macaulay's "apparent friendship": the friendship shows, but its sincerity is left open.
- 3Capable of being seen or easily seen, open to view and within sight.
The mountain peak was clearly apparent on the far horizon.
The lighthouse was apparent from miles down the coast.
Similarvisible, discernible, noticeable, conspicuous
Oppositeinvisible, hidden, concealed
Note
Here the word keeps closest to its origin. Latin appārēns is a present participle, so apparent first described something in the act of appearing, out in plain view. Milton's moon in Paradise Lost (1667) rises as "apparent queen" and unveils her light, visible to all. Before a noun the same adjective can also carry the "seeming" sense, so when sight is meant, the context has to make it plain, as Milton's unveiling does.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English apparaunt, borrowed from Old French aparent, which came from Latin appārēns, the present participle of appāreō ("to appear").