Discern Dis·cern" transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Discerned ;
present participle & verbal noun Discerning .] [ French
discerner , Latin
discernere ,
discretum ;
dis- +
cernere to separate, distinguish. See
Certain , and confer
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 .
Discernment Dis·cern"ment noun [ Confer French
discernement .]
1. The act of discerning. 2. The power or faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes one thing from another; power of viewing differences in objects, and their relations and tendencies; penetrative and discriminate mental vision; acuteness; sagacity; insight; as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment . Syn. -- Judgment; acuteness; discrimination; penetration; sagacity; insight. --
Discernment ,
Penetration ,
Discrimination .
Discernment is keenness and accuracy of mental vision;
penetration is the power of seeing deeply into a subject in spite of everything that intercepts the view;
discrimination is a capacity of tracing out minute distinctions and the nicest shades of thought. A
discerning man is not easily misled; one of a
penetrating mind sees a multitude of things which escape others; a
discriminating judgment detects the slightest differences.