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Differ vs Discriminate - What's the difference?

differ | discriminate |

As verbs the difference between differ and discriminate

is that differ is not to have the same traits, characteristics while discriminate is to make distinctions.

As an adjective discriminate is

having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.

differ

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • Not to have the same traits, characteristics.
  • To have diverging opinions, disagree.
  • * Canning
  • If the honourable gentleman differs with me on that subject, I differ as heartily with him, and shall always rejoice to differ.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    discriminate

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To make distinctions.
  • Since he was colorblind he was unable to discriminate between the blue and green bottles.
  • To make decisions based on prejudice.
  • The law prohibits discriminating against people based on their skin color.
  • To set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.
  • (Cowper)
  • * Barrow
  • 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 * differentiate

    Derived terms

    * discriminative * discriminatory

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.
  • (Francis Bacon)