DISCERN
spot, recognize, recognise, distinguish, discern, pick out, make out, tell apart
(verb) detect with the senses; “The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards”; “I can’t make out the faces in this photograph”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
discern (third-person singular simple present discerns, present participle discerning, simple past and past participle discerned)
(transitive) To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
(transitive) To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
(transitive) To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate.
(intransitive) To perceive differences.
Synonyms
• (detect with the senses): See also perceive
(especially with the eyes): behold, see; see also see
• (perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind): ken, spy; see also spot
• (distinguish something as being different): discriminate, distinguish; see also tell apart
Anagrams
• Cinders, cinders, rescind
Source: Wiktionary
Dis*cern", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Discerned; p. pr. & vb. n.
Discerning.] Etym: [F. discerner, L. discernere, discretum; dis- +
cernere to separate, distinguish. See Certain, and cf. Discreet.]
1. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note
the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish.
To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. Boyle.
A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right
stone. Robynson (More's Utopia).
2. To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and
recognize; as, to discern a difference.
And [I] beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a
young man void of understanding. Prov. vii. 7.
Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to discern the minute
texture of visible objects. Beattie.
I wake, and I discern the truth. Tennyson.
Syn.
– To perceive; distinguish; discover; penetrate; discriminate;
espy; descry; detect. See Perceive.
Dis*cern", v. i.
1. To see or understand the difference; to make distinction; as, to
discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
More than sixscore thousand that cannot discern between their right
hand their left. Jonah iv. 11.
2. To make cognizance. [Obs.] Bacon.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition