Discern vs Wise - What's the difference?
discern | wise |
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.
Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.
(colloquial) Disrespectful.
To become wise.
(ergative, slang) Usually with "up", to inform or learn.
(archaic) Way, manner, method.
* 1850 , The Burden of Nineveh , lines 2-5
* 1866 , , A Ballad of Life , lines 28-30
* 1926 , J. S. Fletcher, Sea Fog , page 308
(dialectal) to instruct
(dialectal) to advise; induce
(dialectal) to show the way, guide
(dialectal) to direct the course of, pilot
(dialectal) to cause to turn
As a verb discern
is to detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.As an acronym wise is
(aviation|nautical) (adjective).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
* *wise
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) wis, wys, from (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch wijs, German weise, Swedish vis. Compare wit.Adjective
(er)- Storing extra food for the winter was a wise decision.
- They were considered the wise old men of the administration.
- "It is a profitable thing, if one is wise , to seem foolish" - Aeschylus
- Don't get wise with me!
Usage notes
* Objects: person, decision, advice, counsel, saying, etc.Antonyms
* unwise * foolishDerived terms
* crack wise * wisdom * wiseacre * wise apple * wiseass * wisecrack * wise guy * wise-hearted * wiseling * wiselike * wiseness * wizen * wizard * word to the wiseVerb
(wis)- Mo wised him up about his situation.
- ''After Mo had a word with him, he wised up.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- ... the prize
- Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes, —
- Her Art for ever in fresh wise
- From hour to hour rejoicing me.
- A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;
- The token of him being upon this wise
- Made for a sign of Lust.
- And within a few minutes the rest of us were on our way too, judiciously instructed by Parkapple and the Brighton official, and disposed of in two taxi-cabs, the drivers of which were ordered to convey us to Rottingdean in such wise that each set his load of humanity at different parts of the village and at the same time that the bus was due to arrive at the hotel.