Meaning of discretion in English

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

  1. Pronunciation

    /dəˈskrɛʃ(ə)n/

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  1. Noun

    discretion

    Etymology

    Middle English (in the sense ‘discernment’): via Old French from Latin discretio(n-) ‘separation’ (in late Latin ‘discernment’), from discernere (see discern)

    Definitions

    1. freedom to act or judge on one's own
  2. 2. knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress

    Examples

    • « the servants showed great tact and discretion »
  3. 3. refined taste

    Examples

    • « tact »
  4. 4. the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies
  5. 5. the trait of judging wisely and objectively

    Examples

    • « a man of discernment »

Famous quotes

  • « There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them. »
    Marie de France
  • « Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion. »
    Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • « The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion. »
    Barbara Tuchman
  • « Even private persons in due season, with discretion and temper, may reprove others, whom they observe to commit sin, or follow bad courses, out of charitable design, and with hope to reclaim them. »
    Isaac Barrow
  • « I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. »
    Thomas Jefferson

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