What part of speech is appears?

"Appears" can be two parts of speech, depending on its usage:

* Verb: This is the most common usage. For example: "The sun appears to be setting."

* Noun: This is less common, but it can function as a noun meaning "a phenomenon that is visible or apparent." For example: "The scientist explained the appears of the new comet."

So, to determine the part of speech, you need to look at the context of the sentence.