discerning

Verb

discern (third-person singular simple present discerns, present participle discerning, simple past and past participle discerned)

1. (transitive) To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes.
   • Meanwhile the brig had altered her tack, and was moving slowly to the east. Three hours later and the keenest eye could not have discerned her top-sails above the horizon.1875, Jules Verne you are no HELP!, chapter 1, in The Survivors of the Chancellor, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2012
2. (transitive) To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry.
   • If they discern any evidences of wrong-going in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they discern no such thing, they will consider me altogether mistaken.1842, Charles Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation, archived from the original on 19 May 2011

   Synonyms:

   ken

3. (transitive) To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate or discriminate.
   • He was too young to discern right from wrong.

   Synonyms:

   discriminate

4. (intransitive) To perceive differences.