Definition of DISCERN

Examples of discern in a Sentence

A careful analysis of the "Nutrition Facts" panels might provide some guidance, but you would have to do a lot of math before you could discern the best choice. — David L. Katz, O, The Oprah Magazine, August 2008 The ability to discern value at a glimpse, to sift the useful out of the rejected with as little expenditure of energy as possible, is the great talent of the scavenger. — Matthew Power, Harper's, December 2006 Astronomers are delighted to have found 19 galaxies that appear to be bent out of shape. The distorted images are cosmic mirages, arcs or rings of light created when the gravity of a massive foreground object bends and magnifies the light from a galaxy lying behind it. Albert Einstein predicted the effect … in 1936, but telescopes at the time weren't powerful enough to discern it. — R. Cowen, Science News, 21 Jan. 2006 Despite the layers of ironic hesitation, the reader soon discerns that the emotions informing the book are raw and, more importantly, authentic. — Publishers Weekly, 13 Dec. 1999 The reasons behind this sudden change are difficult to discern. barely able to discern the garden gate through the mist

Recent Examples on the Web The difference in academic reputation among Howard County schools is a mystery to me, and the corresponding difference in ratings on real estate websites even more difficult to discern. — baltimoresun.com, "Letters: Readers sound off on Howard schools redistricting plan," 3 Dec. 2019 Meanwhile, biologists are busy trying to discern whether urban coyotes are bolder than rural coyotes, and if that is reflected in populations across the country. — National Geographic, "Coyotes have expanded their range to 49 states—and show no signs of stopping.," 29 Nov. 2019 Now local courts are having to grapple with First Amendment and Second Amendment implications while trying to discern whether troubling comments are just crass shenanigans or isolated outbursts, or justifiable reasons to take a person’s guns. — Mike Baker, New York Times, "He Wrote ‘Kill All Women,’ but a Judge Returned His Guns," 18 Nov. 2019 Researchers have conducted multiple studies of contributors to wiki projects, trying to discern what exactly makes someone spend their time on something that doesn’t have immediate material rewards. — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, "How to Make a Website," 11 Nov. 2019 Policymakers, analysts and scholars trying to discern the retailer’s motives and objectives chalked it up to a public relations move or the natural result of a tight labor market. — Scott F. Latham, The Conversation, "What Amazon’s decision to retrain a third of its employees means for the future of work," 19 July 2019 Using what’s known as neural network technology, the AI system will be trained to discern what’s happening by learning from reams of imaging captured with sensors installed in the walls of patient rooms. — Rebecca Robbins, STAT, "Stanford’s new hospital is brimming with futuristic tech. Will it help save money — or drive up costs?," 18 Nov. 2019 Would a facial recognition app eliminate cases of mistaken identity if it weren’t designed by a team of all-white designers, who created a product skewed to discern Caucasian features but not features of other ethnicities? — Kush Saxena, Quartz, "Engineers need a required course in ethics," 8 Nov. 2019 This is intended to discern the contributions to a trait of large numbers of genetic differences that each have a small effect. — The Economist, "Migrants from coalfields take DNA as well as talent with them," 23 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'discern.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.