Verb

To see someone or something as different from others.

* {{quote-book, author=De Lacy O'Leary, title=, year=1922

, passage=It had begun to take a leading place even in the days of the Ptolemies, and in scientific, as distinguished from purely literary work, it had assumed a position of primary importance early in the Christian era.}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=(Jeremy Bernstein) , title=A Palette of Particles , volume=100, issue=2, page=146 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}

To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.

To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.

* 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE

THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.

(obsolete) To make to differ.

* Bible, 1 Cor. iv. 7 (Douay version)

Who distinguisheth thee?

Verb

(head)

(differentiate)

Verb

(differentiat)

To show, or be the distinction between two things.

* Earle

The word "then" was differentiated into the two forms "then" and "than".

* {{quote-book, year=1933

, passage=The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. , author=George Orwell, title=Down and Out in Paris and London, chapter=Ch. XXII, page=120, publisher=Harvest / Harcourt paperback edition}}

To perceive the difference between things; to discriminate.

* {{quote-book, title=, year=1964

, passage=he refused to instruct that actual intent to harm or recklessness had to be found before punitive damages could be awarded, or that a verdict for respondent should differentiate between compensatory and punitive damages.}}

(intransitive) To modify, or be modified.

(mathematics) To calculate the derivative of a function.

(mathematics) To calculate the differential of a function of multiple variables.

(biology) To produce distinct organs or to achieve specific functions by a process of development called differentiation.

* {{quote-book, title=, year=1930, author=Robert Evans Snodgrass

, passage=In Chapter IV we learned that every animal consists of a body, or soma, formed of cells that are differentiated from the germ cells usually at an early stage of development.}}