Library / English Dictionary

DISCERN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Detect with the senses

Example:

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

Synonyms:

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

"Discern" entails doing...:

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discern"):

resolve (make clearly visible)

discriminate (distinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

discernible (perceptible by the senses or intellect)

discernible (capable of being seen or noticed)

discernible (capable of being perceived clearly)

discernment (perception of that which is obscure)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Researchers were able to discern an equatorial jet “with dramatically variable wind speeds,” that push “vast amounts of cloud across the planet.”

(Exoplanet Could Have Clouds of Rubies, Sapphires, VOA)

Edmund did not discern any symptoms of regret, and thought his father a little unreasonable in supposing the first three or four days could produce any.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The second course was so equal that the keenest judges could not discern any vantage.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So easily pleased—so little discerning;—what signified her praise?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Two types of chromatin, euchromatin and heterochromatin, can be discerned microscopically.

(Interphase Chromosome, NCI Thesaurus)

When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A study from the 1920s suggested that humans could discern about 10,000 smells—a number far below our other senses.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)

Individual chromosomes can be discerned and differentiated morphologically.

(Mitotic Chromosome, NCI Thesaurus)

The immune system cannot discern replication-competent virus from defective virus.

(HIV seeks refuge in immune cells to avoid full elimination, SciDev.Net)

The suspensions are then imaged with electrons to obtain molecular images that are averaged together to discern a three-dimensional (3D) protein structure.

(Near-atomic resolution of protein structure by electron microscopy holds promise for drug discovery, NIH)