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Appearance vs Apparent - What's the difference?

appearance | apparent | Related terms |

Apparent is a related term of appearance.



As a noun appearance

is the act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye.

As an adjective apparent is

capable of being seen, or easily seen; open to view; visible to the eye; within sight or view.

appearance

English

Alternative forms

* appearaunce

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye.
  • A thing seen; a phenomenon; an apparition.
  • Personal presence; look; aspect; mien.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • And now am come to see . . . It thy appearance answer loud report.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.
  • Apparent likeness; external show; how something appears to others.
  • * Bible, (w) ix. 15
    • There was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire.
  • * Bible, 1 (w) xvi. 7
    • For man looketh on the outward appearance .
  • * Bible, (w) vii. 24
    • Judge not according to the appearance .
  • The act of appearing in a particular place, or in society, a company, or any proceedings; a coming before the public in a particular character.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • Will he now retire, After appearance , and again prolong Our expectation?
  • (legal) The coming into court of either of the parties; the being present in court; the coming into court of a party summoned in an action, either by himself or by his attorney, expressed by a formal entry by the proper officer to that effect; the act or proceeding by which a party proceeded against places himself before the court, and submits to its jurisdiction.
  • (medical) Chiefly used by nurses: the act of defecation by a patient.

    • Synonyms

    * (act of coming into sight) arrival, manifestation, * (a thing seen) spectacle, apparition, phenomenon, presence * (aspect of a person) aspect, air, figure, look, manner, mien * (outward show) semblance, show, pretense, or facade * (act of appearing in public) debut

    Derived terms

    () * court appearance * disappearance * keep up appearances * nonappearance * plate appearance * put in an appearance * reappearance * save appearances

    References

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    Statistics

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    apparent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of being seen, or easily seen; open to view; visible to the eye; within sight or view.
  • * 1667, (John Milton), (Paradise Lost) , ,
    • […] Hesperus, that led / The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, / Rising in clouded majesty, at length / Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light, / And o’er the dark her silver mantle threw.
  • Clear or manifest to the understanding; plain; evident; obvious; known; palpable; indubitable.
  • * (William Shakespeare), ,
    • Salisbury: It is apparent foul-play; and ’tis shame / That greatness should so grossly offer it: / So thrive it in your game! and so, farewell.
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 20
    • When I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on his left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move him, it became at once apparent that he had received some terrible injuries.
  • Appearing to the eye or mind (distinguished from, but not necessarily opposed to, true or real); seeming.
  • * 1785, (Thomas Reid), Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man , Essay II (“Of the Powers we have by means of our External Senses”), Chapter XIX (“Of Matter and of Space”),
    • What (George Berkeley) calls visible magnitude was by astronomers called apparent magnitude.
  • * 1848 , , (The History of England from the Accession of James the Second) ,
    • To live on terms of civility, and even of apparent friendship.
  • * 1911 , , “”,
    • This apparent motion is due to the finite velocity of light, and the progressive motion of the observer with the earth, as it performs its yearly course about the sun.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}

    Usage notes

    * The word (term) has two common uses that are almost in opposition. One means roughly “clear; clearly true”, and serves to make a statement more decisive: *: It was apparent that no one knew the answer. (=No one knew the answer, and it showed.) * The other is roughly “seeming; to all appearances”, and serves to make a statement less decisive: *: The apparent source of the hubbub was a stray kitten. (=There was a stray kitten, and it seemed to be the source of the hubbub.) * The same ambivalence occurs with the derived adverb (apparently), which usually means “seemingly” but can also mean “clearly”, especially when it is modified by another adverb, such as (quite).

    Synonyms

    * (easy to see) visible, distinct, plain, obvious, clear * (easy to understand) distinct, plain, obvious, clear, certain, evident, manifest, indubitable, notorious, transparent * (seeming to be the case) illusory, superficial

    Antonyms

    * (within sight or view) hidden, invisible * (clear to the understanding) ambiguous, obscure

    Derived terms

    * apparency * apparent horizon * apparent time * apparently * apparentness * heir apparent

    Related terms

    * apparition * appear * appearance

    References

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