DISTINCTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does distinction mean? 

• DISTINCTION (noun)
  The noun DISTINCTION has 4 senses:

1. a discrimination between things as different and distinct on the basis of their characteristics or attributes

2. high status importance owing to marked superiority

3. a distinguishing difference between similar things or people

4. an honor awarded to someone in recognition of achievement or superiority

  Familiarity information: DISTINCTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISTINCTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A discrimination between things as different and distinct on the basis of their characteristics or attributes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

differentiation; distinction

Context example:

it is necessary to make a distinction between love and infatuation

Hypernyms ("distinction" is a kind of...):

discrimination; secernment (the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "distinction"):

contradistinction (a distinction drawn on the basis of contrast)

contrast; demarcation; dividing line; line (a conceptual separation or distinction)

hairsplitting; word-splitting (making too fine distinctions of little importance)

Derivation:

distinguish (mark as different)

Sense 2

Meaning:

High status importance owing to marked superiority

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

distinction; eminence; note; preeminence

Context example:

a scholar of great eminence

Hypernyms ("distinction" is a kind of...):

high status (a position of superior status)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "distinction"):

king (preeminence in a particular category or group or field)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A distinguishing difference between similar things or people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

he learned the distinction between gold and lead

Hypernyms ("distinction" is a kind of...):

difference (the quality of being unlike or dissimilar)

Derivation:

have the distinction (be distinguished from others of a similar type by virtue of a notable characteristic)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An honor awarded to someone in recognition of achievement or superiority

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

she graduated with the highest distinction

Hypernyms ("distinction" is a kind of...):

accolade; award; honor; honour; laurels (a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction)

 Context examples 

The distinction between the two records is the use of male pacesetters.

(Kenya's Brigid Kosgei sets new world record at Chicago Marathon, Wikinews)

I am aware that there has been sometimes, in some points, a misplaced distinction; but I think too well of you, Fanny, to suppose you will ever harbour resentment on that account.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The fact that native valve cells cannot oxidize LDL themselves, while smooth muscle cells in blood vessels can, also highlights a key distinction between CAVD and atherosclerosis.

(New Hope for Stopping An Understudied Heart Disease in Its Tracks, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

These articles were brought to me by Skyresh Bolgolam in person attended by two under-secretaries, and several persons of distinction.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

So at dinner; when Mrs. Gummidge was always helped immediately after me, to whom the preference was given as a visitor of distinction.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Widely known or encountered; standard; of no special distinction or quality.

(Common, NCI Thesaurus)

Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Both were fair complexioned and slenderly made; both possessed faces full of distinction and intelligence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Never had he heard such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-drawn distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposition, syllogism, attack and refutation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The distinction had perhaps been felt too strongly.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)