Meaning of discern in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /dəˈsərn/

    US accent Play button

    UK accent Play button

  1. Verb

    discern

    Etymology

    late Middle English: via Old French from Latin discernere, from dis-‘apart’ + cernere‘to separate’

    Definitions

    1. detect with the senses

    Examples

    • « The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards »
    • « I can't make out the faces in this photograph »

    Derived terms

Famous quotes

  • « It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren. »
    Sandra Day O'Connor
  • « Time alone reveals the just man but you might discern a bad man in a single day. »
    Sophocles
  • « Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself. »
    Marcel Proust
  • « We were alone. Where, I could not say, hardly imagine. All was black, and such a dense black that, after some minutes, my eyes had not been able to discern even the faintest glimmer. »
    Jules Verne
  • « The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false the second, to know that which is true. »
    Lactantius

Browse dictionary