DISTINGUISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does distinguish mean? 

• DISTINGUISH (verb)
  The verb DISTINGUISH has 5 senses:

1. mark as different

2. detect with the senses

3. be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense

4. make conspicuous or noteworthy

5. identify as in botany or biology, for example

  Familiarity information: DISTINGUISH used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISTINGUISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they distinguish    ... he / she / it distinguishes   
Past simple: distinguished   
Past participle: distinguished   
-ing form: distinguishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mark as different

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

differentiate; distinguish; secern; secernate; separate; severalise; severalize; tell; tell apart

Context example:

We distinguish several kinds of maple

Hypernyms (to "distinguish" is one way to...):

identify; place (recognize as being; establish the identity of someone or something)

"Distinguish" entails doing...:

compare (examine and note the similarities or differences of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distinguish"):

discriminate; know apart (recognize or perceive the difference)

stratify (divide society into social classes or castes)

discriminate; separate; single out (treat differently on the basis of sex or race)

demarcate (separate clearly, as if by boundaries)

decouple; dissociate (regard as unconnected)

contradistinguish (distinguish by contrasting qualities)

severalise; severalize (distinguish or separate)

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

contrast (put in opposition to show or emphasize differences)

individualise; individualize (make or mark or treat as individual)

sex (tell the sex (of young chickens))

label (distinguish (as a compound or molecule) by introducing a labeled atom)

label (distinguish (an element or atom) by using a radioactive isotope or an isotope of unusual mass for tracing through chemical reactions)

know (be able to distinguish, recognize as being different)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

distinction (a discrimination between things as different and distinct on the basis of their characteristics or attributes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Detect with the senses

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart

Context example:

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

"Distinguish" entails doing...:

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distinguish"):

resolve (make clearly visible)

discriminate (distinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

differentiate; distinguish; mark

Context example:

His modesty distinguishes him from his peers

Hypernyms (to "distinguish" is one way to...):

characterise; characterize; qualify (describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of)

Verb group:

mark (designate as if by a mark)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distinguish"):

characterise; characterize (be characteristic of)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make conspicuous or noteworthy

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

distinguish; signalise; signalize

Hypernyms (to "distinguish" is one way to...):

mark (designate as if by a mark)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "distinguish"):

singularise; singularize (distinguish as singular)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Identify as in botany or biology, for example

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

describe; discover; distinguish; identify; key; key out; name

"Distinguish" entails doing...:

assort; class; classify; separate; sort; sort out (arrange or order by classes or categories)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Individuals with dyslexia have difficulty reading, especially distinguishing between letters that are mirror images of each other, like the characters 'b' and 'd' or 'p' and 'q'.

(Arrangement of light receptors in the eye may cause dyslexia, Wikinews)

Mealy Potatoes uprose once, and rebelled against my being so distinguished; but Mick Walker settled him in no time.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Other sensors currently available on the market only measure overall UV radiation, without distinguishing between UVA, UVB and UVC, each of which has a significantly different impact on human health.

(New wristband provides personalised and real-time tracking of UV exposure, University of Granada)

The finding raises the possibility that a test could be developed to distinguish SIDS cases from other causes of sleep-related, unexpected infant death.

(Blood of SIDS infants contains high levels of serotonin, National Institutes of Health)

A flattened cell of the alveolar epithelium, distinguished by their greatly attenuated cytoplasm and paucity of organelles.

(Alveolar Cell Type I, NCI Thesaurus)

A coded value specifying the physical or societal properties by which male is distinguished from female.

(Administrative Gender Code, NCI Thesaurus)

What distinguishes this specific stem cell population is that under normal conditions (when they express URI), these cells are quiescent, that is, they do not proliferate.

(New Way Discovered for Protecting against High-Dose Radiation Damage, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The results showed that learning to categorize the sounds had increased the brain's sensitivity to the acoustic features that distinguished one sound from another.

(How does the brain learn categorization for sounds? The same way it does for images, National Science Foundation)

To find out, an international team researchers developed an X-ray detector that could distinguish between the two possibilities.

(Evidence for supernovas near Earth, NASA)

The review also distinguishes between information produced incidentally—what scientists call a cue—and information an organism produces intentionally—a signal.

(Study considers sensory impacts of environmental change on ocean species, National Science Foundation)