discern

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
Yarn: 8 skeins of Gedifra Shetland Deluxe (liked the little mohair in it as it's difficult to discern which is the yarn and which is Otis).

View all »
Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. transitive verb To perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect.
  2. transitive verb To recognize or comprehend mentally.
  3. transitive verb To perceive or recognize as being different or distinct; distinguish. See Synonyms at see1.
1 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

More examples »
 

Tags

discern hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 197 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

discern:   discerning ·  discerned ·  discerns
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, descerner, discernir, French discerner = Spanish Portuguese discernir = Italian discernere, scernere, from L. discernere, past participle discrcius, separate, divide, distinguish, discern, from dis-, apart, + cernere = Greek κρίνειν, separate: see certain, critic, etc. Hence discreet, discrete, etc.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/dɪˈzərn/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

anthem · smallpox · bodice · GUITAR · embellishment

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich