different between discern vs signalize

English

Etymology

From Middle English discernen, from Old French discerner, from Latin discernere (“to separate, divide, distinguish, discern”), from dis- (“apart”) + cernere (“to separate”); see certain.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(?)n

(modern pronunciation)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??s??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??s?n/

(older pronunciation)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??z??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??z?n/

Verb

discern (third-person singular simple present discerns, present participle discerning, simple past and past participle discerned)

1. (transitive) To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
2. (transitive) To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
3. (transitive) To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate.

4. (intransitive) To perceive differences.

Synonyms

• (detect with the senses): See also Thesaurus:perceive
  • (especially with the eyes): behold, see; see also Thesaurus:see
• (perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind): ken, spy; see also Thesaurus:spot
• (distinguish something as being different): discriminate, distinguish; see also Thesaurus:tell apart

Derived terms

• discernible
• discernment
• indiscernible

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Cinders, cinders, rescind

English

Etymology

From signal +? -ize.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s??n?la?z/

Verb

signalize (third-person singular simple present signalizes, present participle signalizing, simple past and past participle signalized)

1. (transitive, now rare) To distinguish, to make noteworthy. [from 17th c.]
   • 1789, Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life, Penguin 1990, p. 121:

     [T]he reign of the Tudors was often signalized by the valour of our soldiers and sailors […] .

   • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

     It is this passion which drives men to all the ways we see in use of signalizing themselves.

2. (transitive, now rare) To display or make known (a quality, attribute etc.); to call attention to. [from 17th c.]
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. II, ch. 68:

     He likewise pretended to ridicule the use of fire-arms, which confounded all the distinctions of skill and address, and deprived a combatant of the opportunity of signalizing his personal prowess.

3. (transitive, now rare) To point out; to take special note of. [from 17th c.]
   • 1956, Winston Churchill, History of the English-Speaking Peoples, I.5:

     This expression rex Anglorum is rightly signalised by historians as a milestone in our history.

4. (transitive, chiefly nautical) To communicate with by means of a signal. [from 19th c.]

   a ship signalizes its consort

5. (transitive) To indicate; to be a sign of. [from 19th c.]
   • 1957, Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

     And yet... looking here at this bottle which by its number signalized the day when Colonel Freeleigh had stumbled and fallen six feet into the earth, Douglas could not find so much as a gram of dark sediment […]

6. (transitive, chiefly Canada, US) To furnish (a traffic intersection) with a traffic signal. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

• signalization