discernible

English

WOTD – 2 December 2015

Alternative forms

• discernable

Etymology

From Middle French discernable; spelling changed from -a- to -i- in the 17th century to conform to Latin discernibilis. By surface analysis, discern +‎ -ible.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɝnɪbl̩/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɜːnɪbl̩/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dis‧cern‧ible

Adjective

discernible (comparative more discernible, superlative most discernible)

1. Possible to discern; detectable or derivable by use of the senses or the intellect.

   There is a discernible performance difference between a Porsche and a Civic.

   • 1821, John Duncan, Duncan's Travels:

     To have demolished and rebuilt the walls, would have been a very costly expedient, and as the least of two evils, the painter's brush was resorted to; here and there however, above some of the windows, the black wreathings of the smoke are still discernible through the white covering.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, “Introduction”, in Merchants of Doubt:

     In 1995, the IPCC declared that the human impact on climate was now “discernible.”

   • 2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 36:

     This magnificent picture really stopped me in my tracks when I stumbled across it. I was drawn inexorably and immediately into the compelling detail discernible on this top-quality image.

Synonyms

• See discoverable

Derived terms

• discernibility
• discernibleness
• discernibly
• indiscernible

Related terms

• discernment

Translations

possible to discern

• Bengali: পৃথকযোগ্য (bn) (prithkojōggo)
• Bulgarian: забележим (bg) (zabeležim), различим (bg) (različim)
• Dutch: waarneembaar (nl), bespeurbaar (nl)
• Finnish: näkyvä (fi), havaittava (fi)
• German: erkennbar (de)
• Greek: ευδιάκριτος (el) (evdiákritos)
• Irish: le feiceáil, infheicthe
• Italian: discernibile
• Punjabi: ਦ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਟੀਗੋਚਰ (driśṭīgocar)
• Russian: ощути́мый (ru) (oščutímyj), различи́мый (ru) (različímyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: zamjetan (sh), primjetan (sh), vidljiv (sh), uočljiv (sh), razaberiv, razabirljiv
• Swedish: urskiljbar (sv), märkbar (sv), skönjbar (sv)

Anagrams

• rescindible

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /disθeɾˈnible/ [d̪is.θeɾˈni.β̞le]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /diseɾˈnible/ [d̪i.seɾˈni.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Syllabification: dis‧cer‧ni‧ble

Adjective

discernible m or f (masculine and feminine plural discernibles)

1. discernible

Further reading

• “discernible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10