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  1. discern love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect.
  2. v. To recognize or comprehend mentally.
  3. v. To perceive or recognize as being different or distinct; distinguish. See Synonyms at see1.
  4. v. To perceive differences.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To distinguish; perceive the difference between(two or more things); discriminate.
  2. To indicate or constitute the difference between; show the distinction between.
  3. To see distinctly; separate mentally from the general mass of objects occupying the field of vision; perceive by the eye; descry.
  4. To discover by the intellect; gain knowledge of; become aware of; distinguish.
  5. Synonyms and To perceive, recognize, mark, note, espy, descry.
  6. To perceive a difference or distinction; make or establish a distinction; discriminate: as, to discern between truth and falsehood.
  7. To see; penetrate by the eye.
  8. To have judicial cognizance: with of.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
  2. v. transitive To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
  3. v. transitive To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate.
  4. v. intransitive To perceive differences.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish.
  2. v. To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and recognize.
  3. v. To see or understand the difference; to make distinction.
  4. v. obsolete To make cognizance.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. detect with the senses

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere ("to separate, divide, distinguish, discern"), from dis- ("apart") + cernere ("to separate"); see certain. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere, to separate : dis-, apart; see dis- + cernere, to perceive; see krei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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  • Kristianto2010 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to DISCERN what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ... Philippians 1:9-10
    Feb 17, 2011

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‘discern’ has been looked up 4287 times, loved by 9 people, added to 64 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 10.