Belittle vs Discriminate - What's the difference?
belittle | discriminate |
To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.
* {{quote-book, year=2006
, author=Mark Steyn
, title=America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
, chapter=9
, isbn=0895260786
, page=201
, passage=Under the rules as understood by the New York Times'', the West is free to mock and belittle''' its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and ' belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.}}
To make distinctions.
To make decisions based on prejudice.
To set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.
* Barrow
Having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.
As verbs the difference between belittle and discriminate
is that belittle is to knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is while discriminate is to make distinctions.As an adjective discriminate is
having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.belittle
English
Verb
(belittl)See also
* disparage * denigrate * vilipenddiscriminate
English
Verb
(en-verb)- Since he was colorblind he was unable to discriminate between the blue and green bottles.
- The law prohibits discriminating against people based on their skin color.
- (Cowper)
- To discriminate the goats from the sheep.
Usage notes
Due to the strong pejorative connotations of sense of “decide based on prejudice”, care should be taken in using the term in the sense “distinguish, make distinctions”, and this sense is primarily used in formal discourse; synonyms are generally used instead.Synonyms
(make distinctions) * distinguish * differentiateDerived terms
* discriminative * discriminatoryAdjective
(en adjective)- (Francis Bacon)