verb
- Mark as different.
- usage: "We distinguish several kinds of maple"
- synonyms: distinguish, separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise, tell, tell apart
- Detect with the senses.
- usage: "The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards"; "I can't make out the faces in this photograph"
- synonyms: spot, recognize, recognise, distinguish, discern, pick out, make out, tell apart
- Be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense.
- usage: "His modesty distinguishes him from his peers"
- synonyms: distinguish, mark, differentiate
- Make conspicuous or noteworthy.
- synonyms: signalize, signalise, distinguish
- Identify as in botany or biology, for example.
adjective
- Used of persons. ( standing above others in character or attainment or reputation)
- usage: "our distinguished professor"
- Used of a person's appearance or behavior; befitting an eminent person.
- usage: "his distinguished bearing"; "the monarch's imposing presence"; "she reigned in magisterial beauty"
- synonyms: grand, imposing, magisterial
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). distinguished. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/distinguished/definitions/1172692 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "distinguished" http://smartdefine.org/distinguished/definitions/1172692 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, distinguished, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/distinguished/definitions/1172692>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "distinguished" 23 October 2010. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/distinguished/definitions/1172692> |