Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make a clear distinction; distinguish.
  • intransitive verb To make distinctions on the basis of class or category without regard to individual merit, especially to show prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, gender, or a similar social factor.
  • intransitive verb To perceive or notice the distinguishing features of; recognize as distinct.
  • intransitive verb To make or constitute a distinction in or between.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Discriminating-perceiving nice differences.
  • Distinctive; discriminated.
  • To distinguish from something else, or from each other; separate observe or mark the differences between, absolutely or by some note or sign of distinction: as, to discriminate true from false modesty; to discriminate animals by names.
  • To select; pick out; make a distinction in regard to: as, to discriminate certain persons from a crowd of applicants.
  • To make a difference or distinction; observe or note a difference; distinguish: as, to discriminate between degrees of guilt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.
  • transitive verb To set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.
  • intransitive verb To make a difference or distinction; to distinguish accurately.
  • intransitive verb To treat unequally.
  • intransitive verb (Railroads) To impose unequal tariffs for substantially the same service.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To make distinctions.
  • verb intransitive To make decisions based on prejudice.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb treat differently on the basis of sex or race
  • verb recognize or perceive the difference
  • adjective marked by the ability to see or make fine distinctions
  • verb distinguish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin discrīmināre, discrīmināt-, from discrīmen, discrīmin-, distinction; see krei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin discriminatus, past participle of discriminare ("to divide, separate, distinguish"), from discrimen ("a space between, division, separation, distinction"), from discerno ("to divide, separate, distinguish, discern"); see discern, discreet, discrete. Compare crime.

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  • Just for fun

    February 16, 2010