Sample sentences for DISCERN - verbalworkout.com

(click/touch triangles for details)

Definition

to notice or understand something — often something that is not obvious

The second picture has more pixels, but the human eye can't discern the difference.

discern = notice or see (something that is not obvious)

The study measured the ability of various age groups to discern slanted news reports.

discern = notice or see (something that is not obvious)

In the novel, she sees through his friendly facade and discerns his evil intent.

discerns = understands

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.
Martin Luther King Jr.

discerns = notices or understands (something that is not obvious)

It was impossible to discern clear facial features, but he was certain it was a woman;
Stieg Larsson -- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

discern = see (with difficulty)

And how confident are you in your ability to discern what indeed is good for you, or what is evil?
William P. Young -- The Shack

discern = notice or understand (something that is not obvious)

Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the gloom...
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

discern = make out (see or notice something not easy to see)

...after a while, Kate discerned a pattern in their arrivals and departures.
Robert Cormier -- After the First Death

discerned = to notice something that is not obvious

It was an old model Ford, long and wide, a dark color I couldn't discern in the moon light.
Khaled Hosseini -- The Kite Runner

discern = distinguish (to notice or understand something that is not obvious)

discerned = noticed

Atticus kept us in fits that evening, gravely reading columns of print about a man who sat on a flagpole for no discernible reason, which was reason enough for Jem to spend the following Saturday aloft in the treehouse.
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

discernible = understandable

He looked stealthily at his companions, feeling sure that they must discern in his face evidences of this pursuit.
Stephen Crane -- The Red Badge of Courage

discern = notice

as I discern, It burneth in the Capels' monument.
William Shakespeare -- Romeo and Juliet

discern = to see something that is not obvious

he could but dimly discern the others who were brought there
Charles Dickens -- A Tale of Two Cities

discern = see

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
Henry David Thoreau -- Walden

discern = understand (something that is not obvious)

There was, discernible in the letter, a slight anti-foreign bias
Agatha Christie -- The ABC Murders

discernible = possible to notice or understand

He sniffed again but could not make it out; there was a cat odor in the rug, he realized, past which it was impossible to discern anything.
Gish Jen -- Typical American

discern = to notice

Disguised he came; but those his children dear
Their parent soon discerned, though in disguise.
John Milton -- Paradise Lost

discerned = noticed something that is not obvious

Hatsue studied the photograph for a long time, particularly Kabuo's eyes and mouth, to see what she might discern there.
David Guterson -- Snow Falling on Cedars

discern = notice or understand (that is not obvious)

Its wandering and wild glances fell at this moment upon the head of the bed, over which the face of its master, rigid with horror, was just discernible.
Edgar Allan Poe -- The Murders in the Rue Morgue

discernible = possible to see

Search for other examples by interest

Interest — Source