DISCERNING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does discerning mean? 

• DISCERNING (adjective)
  The adjective DISCERNING has 4 senses:

1. having or revealing keen insight and good judgment

2. unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic

3. quick to understand

4. able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive

  Familiarity information: DISCERNING used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCERNING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or revealing keen insight and good judgment

Context example:

a discerning reader

Similar:

clear; percipient (characterized by ease and quickness in perceiving)

clear-eyed; clear-sighted; perspicacious (mentally acute or penetratingly discerning)

prescient (perceiving the significance of events before they occur)

Also:

critical (characterized by careful evaluation and judgment)

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

Antonym:

undiscerning (lacking discernment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic

Synonyms:

discerning; discreet

Context example:

a discreet silence

Similar:

tactful (having or showing a sense of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Quick to understand

Synonyms:

apprehensive; discerning

Context example:

a kind and apprehensive friend

Similar:

perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive

Context example:

a discerning eye for color

Similar:

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

 Context examples 

His tone, his expressions, his choice of subject, his knowing where to stop; it was all the operation of a sensible, discerning mind.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was much relieved by discerning such different feelings.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

If it be so, I am sure you must be included in that part, that discerning part, and therefore entreat you to let me know how far I have been rightly informed.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So easily pleased—so little discerning;—what signified her praise?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The activity of perceiving, discerning, discovering or identifying.

(Detection, NCI Thesaurus)

Clerval, whose eyes and feelings were always quick in discerning the sensations of others, declined the subject, alleging, in excuse, his total ignorance; and the conversation took a more general turn.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Discerning a predictable pattern for which Martian years will have planet-encircling or global storms has been a challenge.

(Study Predicts Next Global Dust Storm on Mars, NASA)

Elinor was employed in walking thoughtfully from the fire to the window, from the window to the fire, without knowing that she received warmth from one, or discerning objects through the other; and Marianne, seated at the foot of the bed, with her head leaning against one of its posts, again took up Willoughby's letter, and, after shuddering over every sentence, exclaimed—It is too much!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

For all his pragmatic certitude, it seemed as if he watched the play and movement of life in the hope of discovering something more about it, of discerning in its maddest writhings a something which had hitherto escaped him,—the key to its mystery, as it were, which would make all clear and plain.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This critique, the justness of which was unfortunately lost on poor Catherine, brought them to the door of Mrs. Thorpe's lodgings, and the feelings of the discerning and unprejudiced reader of Camilla gave way to the feelings of the dutiful and affectionate son, as they met Mrs. Thorpe, who had descried them from above, in the passage.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)