Language is full of surprises, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the space between technical jargon and everyday English. Some words do double duty—wearing one meaning in casual conversation and another entirely in specialized fields. This isn’t just quirky—it can cause real confusion, even for people who are technically trained.

Take the word apparent, for example. In general English, apparent sometimes means something that’s obvious or clearly seen, but it is more often used to mean something that only seems to be true but might not be. So which is it?

Now, enter the world of electrical engineering. Here, apparent power refers to the total power being supplied to a system. It’s made up of two parts: real power, which actually does the work, and reactive power, which doesn’t directly do work but is still part of the system. So apparent power is very real—it’s not just « seemingly » there, it is there. That alone can twist your brain a little if you’re used to the non-technical meaning of the word.

To make things more confusing, the term real power might sound like it should mean « all the power. » After all, real means actual, right? But in this technical context, it only refers to the portion of power that does useful work. So ironically, real doesn’t mean “everything,” and apparent doesn’t mean “only looks like it’s there.” It’s almost the opposite of what we might assume based on everyday language.

This isn’t an isolated case. I’ve seen this kind of confusion crop up in other fields too. One example that stands out is elasticity in economics. To most of us, elasticity is a physical property—how much something can stretch and return to shape. But in economics, it refers to how much demand or supply changes in response to changes in price. It’s still about flexibility, in a way, but the connection isn’t obvious at first glance.

These little language traps can trip up students, professionals, and even seasoned experts when they cross from one domain to another. It’s a reminder that technical literacy isn’t just about learning new concepts—it’s also about relearning familiar words.

So next time a term doesn’t quite make sense, it might be worth asking: is this word playing a double role?