Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Perceptible, as by vision or the intellect. synonym: perceptible.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being discerned; perceivable; observable; distinguishable. Formerly sometimes spelled discernable.
  • Synonyms Perceptible, perceivable, noticeable, apparent, visible.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Capable of being discerned by the eye or the understanding

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Possible to discern.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective capable of being seen or noticed
  • adjective capable of being perceived clearly
  • adjective perceptible by the senses or intellect

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Now, whether P. Diddy, the choose-your-own-identity quality of Facebook, Dora the Explorer, or Burning Man will result in discernible political change or a broader, spiritual realignment remains to be seen.

    Letters 2009

  • Now, whether P. Diddy, the choose-your-own-identity quality of Facebook, Dora the Explorer, or Burning Man will result in discernible political change or a broader, spiritual realignment remains to be seen.

    Letters 2009

  • Now, whether P. Diddy, the choose-your-own-identity quality of Facebook, Dora the Explorer, or Burning Man will result in discernible political change or a broader, spiritual realignment remains to be seen.

    Letters 2009

  • If, however, a bundle of rays of light traverses a medium in which extremely fine dust is present, the ray of light will scatter to the sides and the path of the ray through the medium will be discernible from the side.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1930 - Presentation Speech 1931

  • In the space of about half an hour, they landed at the point they expected to make, where they found a team waiting, with a lantern so ingeniously fixed in the wagon as to be discernible from the American side of the river only; this being the light by which the two boatmen had steered.

    Ridgeway An Historical Romance of the Fenian Invasion of Canada Scian Dubh 1855

  • As we argue in this week's cover, the problem with populist rage — defined as the discernible public feeling that the few are unjustly profiting at the expense of the many — is that while it is cathartic, it can lead to bad decisions that may make the situation against which one is raging even worse.

    The Editor’s Desk 2009

  • "There's a little brook down there in spring," said she, pointing to a small, grass-grown water-course in the meadow, hardly discernible from the height, – "but there's no water in it now.

    Queechy 1854

  • Still, in that famous work of his, Lavater not only treats of the various faces of men, but also attentively studies the faces of horses, birds, serpents, and fish; and dwells in detail upon the modifications of expression discernible therein.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • It bobbed and dipped with an independent life of its own, no doubt conveying subtleties of expression discernible only to an-other Tsla.

    Voyage To The City Of The Dead Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1984

  • But as if divining his thoughts -- just as they passed through the dining-room door, Euphra looked round at him, almost over Funkelstein's shoulder, and, without putting into her face the least expression discernible by either of the others following, contrived to banish for the time all Hugh's despair, and to convince him that he had nothing to fear from Funkelstein.

    David Elginbrod George MacDonald 1864

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