discern

From Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere (“to separate, divide, distinguish, discern”), from dis- (“apart”) + cernere (“to separate”); see certain.

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

(modern pronunciation)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɜːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɝn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

(older pronunciation)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈzɜːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈzɝn/

discern (third-person singular simple present discerns, present participle discerning, simple past and past participle discerned)

1. (transitive) To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
   • 1875, Jules Verne you are no HELP!, chapter 1, in The Survivors of the Chancellor‎, archived from the original on 12 April 2012:

     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.

2. (transitive) To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
   • 1842, Charles Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation‎, archived from the original on 19 May 2011:

     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.

3. (transitive) To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate or discriminate.

   He was too young to discern right from wrong.

   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan‎, archived from the original on 7 June 2011:

     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.

4. (intransitive) To perceive differences.

• (detect with the senses): See also Thesaurus:perceive
  • (especially with the eyes): behold, see; see also Thesaurus:see
• (perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind): ken, spy; see also Thesaurus:spot
• (distinguish something as being different): discriminate, distinguish; see also Thesaurus:tell apart

• discernible
• discernment
• indiscernible

• Cinders, cinders, rescind