Differ vs Discriminate - What's the difference?
differ | discriminate |
Not to have the same traits, characteristics.
To have diverging opinions, disagree.
* Canning
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 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)- If the honourable gentleman differs with me on that subject, I differ as heartily with him, and shall always rejoice to differ.
External links
* *Anagrams
* ----discriminate
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)