I Do Not Understand The Word "Apparent"

I am a (somewhat) college educated person. You’re reading the blog of an English major who had one semester left at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa but opted to take a job at a little blog called Barstool Sports in 2014 instead of getting his degree. I had a respectable GPA, turned in all of my assignments on time and was liked by my professors and classmates (until I got the Barstool offer and ghosted everybody. Literally. I never told any of them. I got the e-mail from Dave, walked outta class, walked off campus and never looked back). The reason I bring all this up is to convey that I’m not a total idiot. I am an idiot for sure (as you already know or are about to find out) but not a total idiot.

So with all of that said, I do not understand the word “apparent” I just don’t.

Here’s the Google definition of apparent

Am I crazy or are those definitions the complete opposite of each other? Pretty sure they are. The first definition states that the word refers to something that is “clearly visible” or “obvious” then the second definition refers to something that is “seeming real or true BUT NOT NECESSARILY SO” How can one word mean both obvious and something that seems real but ehhhhhh maybe not. What? Those sure seem like conflicting ideas.

This all came about when reports of Demi Lovato’s heroin overdose started to trickle out yesterday afternoon.

There was lot of this

I get what they’re trying to say there. They’re trying to say that Demi Lovato was rushed to the hospital and that happened because it would appear that she overdosed on heroin. BUT you could also look at that and read it as saying Demi Lovato was rushed to the hospital because she obviously overdosed on heroin, which is just rude. So which is it?

And if the answer to my confusion is, “Well you gotta look at the context of when it’s being used. That’ll tell you what way they’re intending to use it.” My response to that is why don’t we go ahead and come up with a different word rather than using the same word that means two different things and leaving it up to the surrounding words to determine what the one word means? That seems like a much simpler solution. Life is complicated enough. We don’t need one word that has two opposite definitions.

Thanks for following along on this journey.