Definition of "apparent" []

• Readily seen; visible. (adjective)
• Readily understood; clear or obvious. (adjective)
• Appearing as such but not necessarily so; seeming: an apparent advantage. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "What they will do first is send a letter to each of those CEOs asking them to explain what they call apparent discrepancies."
• "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."
• "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."