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Recognize vs Discriminate - What's the difference?

recognize | discriminate |

In lang=en terms the difference between recognize and discriminate

is that recognize is to give an award while discriminate is to set apart as being different; to mark as different; to separate from another by discerning differences; to distinguish.

As verbs the difference between recognize and discriminate

is that recognize is to match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity or recognize can be to cognize again while discriminate is to make distinctions.

As an adjective discriminate is

having the difference marked; distinguished by certain tokens.

recognize

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) reconoistre, from (etyl) recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English , compare German erkennen.

Alternative forms

* recognise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Verb

(recogniz) (North American and Oxford British spelling)
  • To match something or someone which one currently perceives to a memory of some previous encounter with the same entity.
  • * 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I,
  • He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days, and he felt a genuine thrill of pleasure when he recognized the red bandana turban of old Aunt Lyddy, the ancient negro woman who had sold him gingerbread and fried fish, and told him weird tales of witchcraft and conjuration, in the old days when, as an idle boy, he had loafed about the market-house.
  • To acknowledge the existence or legality of something; treat as valid or worthy of consideration.
  • To acknowledge or consider as something.
  • To realize or discover the nature of something; apprehend quality in; realize or admit that.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw
  • , title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.}}
  • To give an award.
  • To show appreciation of.
  • to recognize services by a testimonial
  • (obsolete) To review; to examine again.
  • (South)
  • (obsolete) To reconnoiter.
  • Derived terms
    * recognizability * recognizable * recognizably * recognizance * recognizant * recognization * recognizee * recognizer * recognizor

    Etymology 2

    From re-'' + ''cognize

    Alternative forms

    * re-cognize

    Verb

    (recogniz) (North American and Oxford British spelling)
  • To cognize again.
  • 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)