Library / English Dictionary

APPARENTLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unmistakably ('plain' is often used informally for 'plainly')

Example:

he is plain stubborn

Synonyms:

apparently; evidently; manifestly; obviously; patently; plain; plainly

Classified under:

Adverbs

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Pertainym:

apparent (clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

From appearances alone

Example:

on the face of it the problem seems minor

Synonyms:

apparently; on the face of it; ostensibly; seemingly

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

apparent (appearing as such but not necessarily so)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He was very fat, but had apparently at some time been much fatter, so that the skin hung about his face in loose pouches, like the cheeks of a blood-hound.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You observed that her right glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Apparently, therefore, it was the young man himself who had fastened the door.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"On the contrary, he was a moral prig," Haythorne blurted out, with apparently undue warmth.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Having grown tired, apparently, of the task, she relinquished the oar to me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But the dark spot, which was first seen at mid-southern latitudes, has apparently faded away rather than going out with a bang.

(Hubble Sees Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm, NASA)

NASA’s New Horizons mission has discovered a new, apparently less lofty mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto’s best known feature, the bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region).

(New Horizons Finds Second Mountain Range in Pluto’s ‘Heart’, NASA)

Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“Jim, Jim,” says he, quite pleased apparently.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He had apparently been struck down first from behind, but his assailant had gone on beating him long after he was dead.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)