Discern vs Discover - What's the difference?
discern | discover |
To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
* {{quote-book
, year=1875
, author=Jules Verne
, title=The Survivors of the Chancellor
, chapter=1
To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
* {{quote-book
, year=1842
, author=Charles Dickens
, title=American Notes for General Circulation
To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate.
* {{quote-book
, year=1651
, author=Thomas Hobbes
, title=Leviathan
To perceive differences.
(obsolete) To remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).
To expose, uncover.
:
(chess) To create by moving a piece out of another piece's line of attack.
:
(archaic) To reveal (information); to divulge, make known.
:
*Shakespeare
*:Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover / The several caskets to this noble prince.
*Francis Bacon
*:Prosperity doth best discover' vice; but adversity doth best ' discover virtue.
(obsolete) To reconnoitre, explore (an area).
*, Bk.V, ch.ix:
*:they seyde the same, and were aggreed that Sir Clegis, Sir Claryon, and Sir Clement the noble, that they sholde dyscover the woodys, bothe the dalys and the downys.
To find or learn something for the first time.
:
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (obsolete) To manifest without design; to show; to exhibit.
*C. J. Smith
*:The youth discovered a taste for sculpture.
*1806 , Alexander Hunter, Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ , p.125:
*:The English Cooks keep all their Spices in separate boxes, but the French Cooks make a spicey mixture that does not discover a predominancy of any one of the spices over the others.
As verbs the difference between discern and discover
is that discern is to detect with the senses, especially with the eyes while discover is to remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).As a proper noun Discover is
Discover Card, a brand of credit card.discern
English
Verb
(en verb)citation, passage=Meanwhile the brig had altered her tack, and was moving slowly to the east. Three hours later and the keenest eye could not have discerned her top-sails above the horizon.}}
citation, passage=If they discern' any evidences of wrong-going in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they ' discern no such thing, they will consider me altogether mistaken.}}
citation, passage=The severity of judgement, they say, makes men censorious and unapt to pardon the errors and infirmities of other men: and on the other side, celerity of fancy makes the thoughts less steady than is necessary to discern exactly between right and wrong.}}
- He was too young to discern right from wrong.
Derived terms
* discernible * discernment * indiscernibleAnagrams
* *discover
English
Alternative forms
* discovre (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)Can China clean up fast enough?, passage=All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.}}