The Collaborative International Dictionary
Discernible \Dis*cern"i*ble\, a. [L. discernibilis.] Capable of being discerned by the eye or the understanding; as, a star is discernible by the eye; the identity of difference of ideas is discernible by the understanding.
The effect of the privations and sufferings . . . was
discernible to the last in his temper and deportment.
--Macaulay.
Syn: Perceptible; distinguishable; apparent; visible; evident; manifest.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also discernable, 1560s, from French discernable, from discerner (see discern). Form with -a- was more common at first; spelling changed to -i- 17c. to conform to Latin discernibilis.
Wiktionary
a. Possible to discern; detectable or derivable by use of the senses or the intellect.
WordNet
adj. perceptible by the senses or intellect; "things happen in the earth and sky with no discernible cause"; "the newspaper reports no discernible progress in the negotiations"; "the skyline is easily discernible even at a distance of several miles" [syn: discernable] [ant: indiscernible]
capable of being perceived clearly; "an essay with a meaning that was not always discernible"
capable of being seen or noticed; "a discernible change in attitude"; "a clearly evident erasure in the manuscript"; "an observable change in behavior" [syn: evident, observable]
Usage examples of "discernible".
Dead bees by the thousands quickly littered the cars and the Ino 210 ground - with no discernible difference.
BLANC Planted mainly in France, chenin blanc runs the gamut from cheap, dry whites with little discernible character to some of the most subtle, fragrant, and complex whites in the world.
I would like to emphasize is that the higher stages of transpersonal development are stages that are taken from those who have actually developed into those stages and who display palpable, discernible, and repeatable characteristics of that development.
She is a quadroon, as may be seen from her fairer complexion, though her likeness to her mother is quite discernible.
Though dun-colored feathers rendered them nearly invisible against the tall grass that surrounded them, their enormous parrotlike beaks were easily discernible.
The president noted that the traditional notion of preemption held that a nation would be justified in striking first if an adversary began to make discernible war preparations and began to move its ships, ready its planes, or mobilize its troops.
In Pembrokeshire, Gower, and Radnorshire, we find them still flourishing, and for some distance along the coast northwards from Pembrokeshire there are still families, and even whole hamlets, descended from them, exhibiting traits of character and peculiarities of manner easily discernible to an observant eye.
But strangest of all is the circumstance, that in more instances than one, when the body has been recovered, not a single mark of violence is discernible the man being stark dead.
Klaxons sounded at unexpected times, warning of nothing discernible except that certain studs in a control room had been pressed.
In that part of the earth two sets of tides are discernible, the one and greater due to the moon, the other, much smaller, to the sun.
The whales had irregularly settled bodily down into the blue, thus giving no distantly discernible token of the movement, though from his closer vicinity Ahab had observed it.
The experimenters wafted a wide variety of odors in front of it, including obnoxious and irritating gases such as ammonia, with no discernible effects.
The dwelling itself was composed of two hundred and seventeen rooms, twenty-one kivas, and, at the far end, a four-story tower, the inside room of which boasted intact plaster with discernible paintings.
Traffic raced around on monorails or in the air, rising and falling several hundred feet precipitously in no discernible pattern.
And in this case, the victimology yielded clues that this was not a stranger crime and that perhaps more easily discernible motives applied.