discern
verbUK /dɪˈsɜːn/ · CA, US /dɪˈsɝn/
Etymology From Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere (“to separate, divide, distinguish, discern”), from dis- (“apart”) + cernere (“to distinguish”); see certain.
1
To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
- Meanwhile the brig had altered her tack, and was moving slowly to the east. Three hours later and the keenest eye could not have discerned her top-sails above the horizon.1875, Jules Verne you are no HELP!, chapter 1, in The Survivors of the Chancellor, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2012:
2
To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
- If they discern any evidences of wrong-going in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they discern no such thing, they will consider me altogether mistaken.1842, Charles Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation, archived from the original on 19 May 2011:
- General reading readiness is assessed by tests and is also estimated by teachers who are often skillful at discerning just when a pupil is ready to learn to read. The important thing to remember is that jumping the gun is usually self-defeating.1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 24:
3
To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate or discriminate.
- He was too young to discern right from wrong.
- The severity of judgement, they say, makes men censorious and unapt to pardon the errors and infirmities of other men: and on the other side, celerity of fancy makes the thoughts less steady than is necessary to discern exactly between right and wrong.1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2011:
4
To perceive differences.
- Synonyms
- behold, see, ken, spy, discriminate, distinguish
- Derived terms
- discernability, discernable, discernance, discernible, discernment, indiscernible, misdiscern, undiscerned