Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Characterized by excellence or distinction; eminent.
- adj. Dignified in conduct or appearance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Separated by some mark of distinction: as, distinguished rank; distinguished abilities.
- Possessing distinction; separated from the generality by superior abilities, achievements, character, or reputation; better known than others in the same class or profession; well known; eminent: as, a distinguished statesman, author, or soldier.
- Synonyms Celebrated, Eminent, etc. (see famous); marked, conspicuous, excellent.
Wiktionary
- adj. celebrated, well-known or eminent because of past achievements; prestigious
- adj. Having a dignified appearance or demeanor
- adj. Specified, noted.
- v. simple past tense and past participle of en.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Marked; special.
- adj. Separated from others by distinct difference; having, or indicating, superiority; eminent or known; illustrious; -- applied to persons and deeds.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. used of a person's appearance or behavior; befitting an eminent person
- adj. (used of persons) standing above others in character or attainment or reputation
Examples
“The term distinguished is predicable indeed of each of the members, but of each in a different sense.”
“The term distinguished between God’s ordination of Israel for unstated reasons of His own—reasons which the Jews spent millennia trying to parse—and, on the other hand, a clear destiny that Americans could readily perceive—our geography, our system of government, our generosity and natural bounty.”
“In 1949, Vice President Alben W. Barkley became the first office, holder to receive the medal, and since then, Congress has recognized only what it described as the distinguished service of Democratic Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn of Texas, and Democratic senators Robert E Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey.”
“Capacity to identify, attract, and retain distinguished faculty.”
Discourse.net: Admit It, After Reading This You Want to be Our Dean
“The physical orientation, the Congregation says, must be distinguished from the spiritual.”
“I also think that the authority of each is easily sustained by cases, such as NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, that can be distinguished from the individual mandate.”
“The financial crisis (which TARP likely helped to remedy) needs to be sharply distinguished from the economic crisis (which the $850 billion, so-called “stimulus” package has likely served to make matters worse).”
The Volokh Conspiracy » “Lessons From the Financial Crisis”:
“So that the new lighter-weight quarters could be easily distinguished from the previous issues an arrowhead was added to each side of the obverse date, and rays extending outward from the eagle were added to the reverse.”
“This is a traditional fantasy, but it feels modern without the explicit content that a lot of authors abuse to try and make their book distinguished from the genre classics (and the dross).”
The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List [part 7] - THE RoSF LIST
“Its use in Texas is very common — the Jurat is the short paragraph for a notary to acknowledge an affidavit, where the signatory is swearing or affirming the contents; it is distinguished from a simple Acknowledgement, where a Notary affirms that the person in fact signed an instrument (like a Deed, Deed of Trust, Release, etc.).”
zacharyr The list is long and distinguished
Yeah so's my johnson Dec 6, 2006