discerning

discern (someone or something) from (someone or something)

1. To recognize the differences between people or things. I have a hard time discerning Jim from Greg, but they are identical twins after all. You can discern hydrangea from phlox by looking at their leaves.
2. To gain information from someone or something. Her message was so cryptic that I couldn't discern anything from it—do you know what's going on?
See also: discern

discern between (someone or something) and (someone or something)

To recognize the differences between people or things. I have a hard time discerning between Jim and Greg, but they are identical twins after all. You can discern between hydrangea and phlox by looking at their leaves.
See also: and, between, discern
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • discern
  • discern (someone or something) from (someone or something)
  • discern from
  • discern between (someone or something) and (someone or something)
  • discern between and
  • discriminate between
  • discriminate between (someone or something)
  • (as) different as night and day
  • different as night and day
  • differ in
References in periodicals archive
Discerning God's Will Together does well what it intends to do: make a case that Anabaptist ecclesiology and Anabaptist hermeneutics are inextricably linked.
In his comments on the new collection, Mr Prashant Vatkar, Vice President-ME Operations at Samsonite, said: "As the leaders in cutting-edge travel solutions, our primary concern is to satisfy the needs of our discerning travellers.
The new Allinson range is designed to drive our leadership further in the premium brown sector and appeal to the more affluent, younger and discerning consumer who is attracted to the premium with bits sector.
So it's pleasing to see our MPs are discerning when it comes to shopping.
Michael Banks' The eBay Survival Guide (1593270631, $19.95) is another fine guide to selling and buying on eBay--and avoiding common pitfalls--which covers just about everything including discerning the 'real prices' of items and learning more effective bidding strategies.
Research in applied linguistics; becoming a discerning consumer.
Deftly embedded in a riveting story for your readers ages 8 to 14, is an engaging exploration of such issues as individualism and family obligation, the complexities of discerning right from wrong, and the consequences of pursuing truth and justice.
With seven sections, he has created, he says, "seven different ways to dance." Shen Wei edits movement with the discerning eye of a painter--which he also is.
According to Rosenzweig, the process of discerning how and when one responds authentically to the divine command transpires through the practice of studying sacred texts with others.
LaReau, in her book Getting a Life: How to Find Your True Vocation (Orbis Books, Maryknoli Press), views discerning our personal vocation as a life journey, as a "process of continuing conversion, of continually opening ourselves up to our deepest, most heart-felt desire, which is, ultimately, God's desire for us." LaReau, who has a Master of Divinity, explores her own life's journey, and in that telling gives proof of her main thesis--namely, that we never arrive, but are always travelling.
A student-teacher relationship is often the vital key to discerning vocation.
Gold diggers need not apply either, she adds: "[The millionaires] are paying me to be discerning in order to arrange the best possible matches."
Standing in the great tradition of Tocqueville and Burckhardt, he combines probity and courage in his "censorial inspection" of modern progressivists and positivists; in his opposition to the ravaging forces of historical determinism, materialism, mechanism; and in his emphasis on the need for religious understanding in the concomitant search for historial understanding, or as Congdon writes in the two last sentences of his discerning reconsideration regarding Lukacs's basic preoccupations: "It is to help others to remember, or to come to know, an earlier and better time.
They cater to discerning upscale travelers seeking a lodging experience of high comfort and prestige, according to Garibay.
Phrases such as picturesque, new and exciting vistas, marketing of the area for the discerning visitor and public enjoyment have a hollow ring when one remembers the reality, that in the midst of all this beauty the erection of Europe's biggest wind farm has just been approved by the local planning authority, Ceredigion County Council.