Dis*cern"ment (?), n. [Cf. F. discernement.]

1.

The act of discerning.

2.

The power or faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes one thing from another; power of viewing differences in objects, and their relations and tendencies; penetrative and discriminate mental vision; acuteness; sagacity; insight; as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment.

Syn. -- Judgment; acuteness; discrimination; penetration; sagacity; insight. -- Discernment, Penetration, Discrimination. Discernment is keenness and accuracy of mental vision; penetration is the power of seeing deeply into a subject in spite of everything that intercepts the view; discrimination is a capacity of tracing out minute distinctions and the nicest shades of thought. A discerning man is not easily misled; one of a penetrating mind sees a multitude of things which escape others; a discriminating judgment detects the slightest differences.

 

© Webster 1913.

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