Library / English Dictionary

DISCRIMINATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by the ability to see or make fine distinctions

Example:

discriminate people

Classified under:

Adjectives

Also:

discriminating (showing or indicating careful judgment and discernment especially in matters of taste)

Antonym:

indiscriminate (not marked by fine distinctions)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Recognize or perceive the difference

Synonyms:

discriminate; know apart

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "discriminate" is one way to...):

differentiate; distinguish; secern; secernate; separate; severalise; severalize; tell; tell apart (mark as different)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discriminate"):

subtilize (mark fine distinctions and subtleties, as among words)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

discrimination (the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished)

discriminative (capable of making fine distinctions)

discriminator (a person who (or that which) differentiates)

discriminatory (capable of making fine distinctions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Distinguish

Example:

I could not discriminate the different tastes in this complicated dish

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "discriminate" is one way to...):

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart (detect with the senses)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

discrimination (the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished)

discriminative; discriminatory (capable of making fine distinctions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Treat differently on the basis of sex or race

Synonyms:

discriminate; separate; single out

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "discriminate" is one way to...):

differentiate; distinguish; secern; secernate; separate; severalise; severalize; tell; tell apart (mark as different)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discriminate"):

insulate; isolate (place or set apart)

hive off (remove from a group and make separate)

segregate (separate by race or religion; practice a policy of racial segregation)

redline (discriminate in selling or renting housing in certain areas of a neighborhood)

disadvantage; disfavor; disfavour (put at a disadvantage; hinder, harm)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

discrimination (unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice)

discriminator (a person who (or that which) differentiates)

discriminatory (manifesting partiality)

discriminatory (being biased or having a belief or attitude formed beforehand)

discriminatory (containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She had never found it so difficult to listen to him, though nothing could exceed his solicitude and care, and though his subjects were principally such as were wont to be always interesting: praise, warm, just, and discriminating, of Lady Russell, and insinuations highly rational against Mrs Clay.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Refers to a mechanism leading to a fixed state of immunity that fails to adapt to a changing pathogen and has lost the ability to discriminate antigen after the establishment of a strong primary immune response.

(Deceptive Imprinting, NCI Thesaurus)

The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prisonhouse of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Most of the participants could discriminate mixture sets that overlapped by less than 50% of their components.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)

I listened long: suddenly I discovered that my ear was wholly intent on analysing the mingled sounds, and trying to discriminate amidst the confusion of accents those of Mr. Rochester; and when it caught them, which it soon did, it found a further task in framing the tones, rendered by distance inarticulate, into words.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The findings show that our sense of smell is far more discriminating than previously thought.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)

As his curate, his comrade, all would be right: I would cross oceans with him in that capacity; toil under Eastern suns, in Asian deserts with him in that office; admire and emulate his courage and devotion and vigour; accommodate quietly to his masterhood; smile undisturbed at his ineradicable ambition; discriminate the Christian from the man: profoundly esteem the one, and freely forgive the other.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

No participant could discriminate among vials that overlapped in their components by more than 90% for the 10, 20, or 30 components.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)