discernible

English

WOTD – 2 December 2015

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle French discernable; spelling changed from -a- to -i- in the 17th century to conform to Latin discernibilis. By surface analysis, discern + -ible.

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /dɪˈsɝnɪbl̩/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪˈsɜːnɪbl̩/
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: dis‧cern‧ible

Adjective

discernible (comparative more discernible, superlative most discernible)

  1. Possible to discern; detectable or derivable by use of the senses or the intellect.
    There is a discernible performance difference between a Porsche and a Civic.
    • 1821, John Duncan, Duncan's Travels:
      To have demolished and rebuilt the walls, would have been a very costly expedient, and as the least of two evils, the painter's brush was resorted to; here and there however, above some of the windows, the black wreathings of the smoke are still discernible through the white covering.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      So this was my future home, I thought! [] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
    • 2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, “Introduction”, in Merchants of Doubt:
      In 1995, the IPCC declared that the human impact on climate was now “discernible.”
    • 2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 36:
      This magnificent picture really stopped me in my tracks when I stumbled across it. I was drawn inexorably and immediately into the compelling detail discernible on this top-quality image.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Spain) /disθeɾˈnible/ [d̪is.θeɾˈni.β̞le]
  • IPA(key): (Latin America) /diseɾˈnible/ [d̪i.seɾˈni.β̞le]
  • Rhymes: -ible
  • Syllabification: dis‧cer‧ni‧ble

Adjective

discernible m or f (masculine and feminine plural discernibles)

  1. discernible

Further reading

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