Verb
- 1. spot, recognize, recognise, distinguish, discern, pick out, make out, tell apart
- usage: detect with the senses; "The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards"; "I can't make out the faces in this photograph"
Adjective
- 1. discerning (vs. undiscerning), clear, percipient, clear-eyed, clear-sighted, perspicacious, prescient, critical, discriminating
- usage: having or revealing keen insight and good judgment; "a discerning critic"; "a discerning reader"
- 2. discerning, discreet, tactful (vs. tactless)
- usage: unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic; "a discerning editor"; "a discreet silence"
- 3. apprehensive, discerning, perceptive (vs. unperceptive)
- usage: quick to understand; "a kind and apprehensive friend"- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 4. discerning, discriminating (vs. undiscriminating)
- usage: able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive; "discerning taste"; "a discerning eye for color"
WordNet 3.0 Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University.
All rights reserved.Definition and meaning of discerning (Dictionary)