differentiate
UK/dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt//ˌdɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/
differentiate verb: to modify so as to create a difference or distinction.
Verb
differentiate (third-person singular simple present differentiates, present participle differentiating, simple past and past participle differentiated)
- To modify so as to create a difference or distinction.
- A humble instance of Ablaut may be quoted which took place in the seventeenth century, when the word then was differentiated into the two forms then and than.1873, John Earle, The Philology of the English Tongue, second edition, page 128
- Synonyms:
- change
- To show or be the difference or distinction between things.
- What differentiates an alligator from a crocodile?
- Taste differentiates a gentleman—for instance, Mr. Addison—from a Hottentot or Laplander.1998, W. Ross Winterowd, The English Department: A Personal and Institutional History, Southern Illinois University Press, →ISBN, page 66
- Synonyms:
- differentialize
- To recognize as different or distinct.
- How do you differentiate a fake smile from a genuine one?
- In the earlier chapters uncouth proper names are reduced to a minimum, but the Index refers by name to specific places and persons only generally mentioned in the earlier pages. For instance, the states of Lu and Chêng on pages 22 and 29 : it is hard enough to differentiate Ts‘i, Tsin, Ts‘in, and...1908, Edward Harper Parker, Ancient China Simplified, London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., →OCLC, page ix
- Antonyms:
- conflate
- To calculate the derivative of a function.
- To calculate the differential of a function of multiple variables.
- To perceive the difference between things; to discriminate.
- he refused to instruct that actual intent to harm or recklessness had to be found before punitive damages could be awarded, or that a verdict for respondent should differentiate between compensatory and punitive damages.1964, New York Times v. Sullivan
- Synonyms:
- differentialize
- To teach a lesson in multiple different ways in order to meet the needs of more or less advanced students.
- Like most teaching, differentiating is a mix of art and science. When it works, "it's like a jazz rhythm," said Carol Tomlinson, an education professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on differentiation.2012 May 16, Michael Alison Chandler, “Teaching for all levels — in one class”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2023
- Moreover, children of STIP-teachers who showed many types of differentiation activities learnt more than children of STIP-teachers who differentiated less.2017 August, Tessa H.S. Eysink, Manon Hulsbeek, Hannie Gijlers, “Supporting primary school teachers in differentiating in the regular classroom”, in Teaching and Teacher Education, volume 66...
- To (cause to) go through a process of development called differentiation; to make or become different in form or function.
- In Chapter IV we learned that every animal consists of a body, or soma, formed of cells that are differentiated from the germ cells usually at an early stage of development.1930, Robert Evans Snodgrass, Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living
- Osteoblasts are derived from stromal cells, a type of connective tissue cell in the bone marrow, whereas osteoclasts differentiate from macrophages, which are tissue-bound derivatives of monocytes, a type of white blood cell (see p. 402).2013, Lauralee Sherwood, “The Peripheral Endocrine Glands”, in Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems, 8th edition, Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, →ISBN, page 723
- Synonyms:
- specialize
Noun
differentiate (plural differentiates)
- Something that has been differentiated or stratified.
- There is no discernable tendency, however, for the differentiates to fall into two extremities, as would be expected if they were trending toward distinct eutectics in a residua system.1969, Alexander R. McBirney, Geology and Petrology of the Galápagos Islands, page 185
- This latter terminology is particularly favored by Soviet petrologists, e.g.. Bogatikov et al. (1985), who believe that any magma typically exhibits both agpaitic and miascitic differentiates.1991, Roger H. Mitchell, Petrology of Lamproites, page 10
differentiate meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
differentiate in Hindi
- to differentiate, distinguish
- अंतर करना antar karnā
differentiate in Urdu
- فرق کرنا, ممیز کرنا
differentiate in Bengali
- to differentiate
- বিশেষ করা biśeś kora
differentiate in Malayalam
- discriminate, distinguish, make a distinction
- വേർതിരിക്കുക, വ്യത്യാസലക്ഷണം പറയുക, വേർതിരിച്ചറിയുക, വേർതിരിച്ചു കാണിക്കുക, വിശേഷിപ്പിക്കുക, വ്യത്യാസം കാണിക്കുക
- make different, distinguish, set apart
- വ്യത്യസ്തമാക്കുക, വിഭിന്നമാക്കുക, മാറ്റിനിർത്തുക, വേറിട്ടതാക്കുക, വെവ്വേറെയാക്കുക, വ്യതിരിക്തമാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- differentiate in Kannada
- ಬೇರ್ಪಡಿಸು, ಗಂಟು ಕಾಣಿಸು, ಎಡೆಗಟ್ಟುಗೆಯ್
- differentiate in Punjabi
- ਵੱਖ-ਵੱਖ ਕਰਨਾ
- differentiate in Arabic
- فَرَّقَ farraqa
Examples of differentiate in a sentence
- The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz...
- I use technology to differentiate in my Algebra classroom in many different ways.2018 June 22, Larry Ferlazzo, quoting Sarah Shartzer, “Response: Ways to Use Tech to Differentiate Instruction”, in Education Week...
Synonyms of differentiate
- change
- differentialize
- specialize
- transform
- differentialize (rare) ?
- distinguish
- individualize
- particularize
- severalize
Antonyms
Forms of differentiate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | differentiates |
| present participle | differentiating |
| past participle | differentiated |
| past | differentiated |
| Noun | |
| plural | differentiates |
Origin of differentiate
From New Latin differentiātus, perfect passive participle of differentiō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix)), from Latin differentia (“difference”); see difference.
Words formed from differentiate
Questions about differentiate
- What does differentiate mean?
- Differentiate means to modify so as to create a difference or distinction.
- What is differentiate in Hindi?
- Differentiate in Hindi is अंतर करना (antar karnā). See Differentiate meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use differentiate in a sentence?
- The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.
- What part of speech is differentiate?
- Differentiate can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce differentiate?
- Differentiate is pronounced /dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of differentiate?
- The past tense of differentiate is differentiated.
Words near differentiate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: differentiate (page history and authors); अंतर करना (Hindi) (page history and authors); differentiate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); বিশেষ করা (Bengali) (page history and authors); differentiate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); differentiate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); differentiate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-differentiate.ogg, en-au-differentiate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “differentiate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/differentiate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.