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DISCERNING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having or revealing keen insight and good judgment
Example:
a discerning reader
Classified under:
Similar:
clear; percipient (characterized by ease and quickness in perceiving)
clear-eyed; clear-sighted; perspicacious (mentally acute or penetratingly discerning)
prescient (perceiving the significance of events before they occur)
Also:
critical (characterized by careful evaluation and judgment)
discriminating (showing or indicating careful judgment and discernment especially in matters of taste)
Antonym:
undiscerning (lacking discernment)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive
Example:
a discerning eye for color
Classified under:
Similar:
discriminating (showing or indicating careful judgment and discernment especially in matters of taste)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Quick to understand
Example:
a kind and apprehensive friend
Synonyms:
apprehensive; discerning
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic
Example:
a discreet silence
Synonyms:
discerning; discreet
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
tactful (having or showing a sense of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb discern
Context examples:
She had hoped that, to a man like her uncle, so discerning, so honourable, so good, the simple acknowledgment of settled dislike on her side would have been sufficient.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Mr Elliot talks unreservedly to Colonel Wallis of his views on you, which said Colonel Wallis, I imagine to be, in himself, a sensible, careful, discerning sort of character; but Colonel Wallis has a very pretty silly wife, to whom he tells things which he had better not, and he repeats it all to her.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Not all his good-will for Mr. Rushworth, not all Mr. Rushworth's deference for him, could prevent him from soon discerning some part of the truth—that Mr. Rushworth was an inferior young man, as ignorant in business as in books, with opinions in general unfixed, and without seeming much aware of it himself.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
