What does distinguishing mean

Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. Grammar Thesaurus. Word Lists. Choose your language. My word lists. Tell us about this example sentence:. The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. The sentence contains offensive content. Cancel Submit. To perceive clearly; recognize plainly by any of the senses. To separate and classify. To make famous or eminent; give distinction to.

To distinguish oneself in battle. To see someone or something as different from others. To see someone or something clearly or distinctly. To make oneself noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments. To make a distinction between or among. In a judicial decision, or an argument such as a brief in support of a particular legal outcome, to note or argue that a prior decision of the same or another court is inapplicable as precedent, because of significant differences in the facts or in the legal posture of the two cases.

Origin of distinguish. Alteration of obsolete distingue from Middle English distinguen from Old French distinguer from Latin distinguere to separate steig- in Indo-European roots. Everyone had to wait until the next spring, because an important distinguishing trait shows up in flowers. She also commented on what might be her most distinguishing feature, her pierced nose.

Those who had seen objects multiple times better recalled the original objects but had a harder time distinguishing the lures. Without commanding, distinguishing words from their mouths, the narrative can be wholly invented for Kate and Letizia. It is a distinguishing characteristic of the breed that religious fanatics have a particularly lurid sexual imagination. A good many children seem to be like savages in distinguishing those to whom one is bound to speak the truth.