Crossword clues for discernment
discernment
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Discernment \Dis*cern"ment\, n. [Cf. F. discernement.]
The act of discerning.
-
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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1580s; see discern + -ment.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The ability to distinguish; judgement. 2 discrimination. 3 To distinguish between things. 4 To perceive differences that exist. 5 The condition of understanding. 6 aesthetic discrimination; taste, appreciation. 7 perceptiveness. 8 The ability to make wise judgements; sagacity. 9 discretion in judging objectively.
WordNet
n. the cognitive condition of someone who understands; "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and effect" [syn: understanding, apprehension, savvy]
delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values); "arrogance and lack of taste contributed to his rapid success"; "to ask at that particular time was the ultimate in bad taste" [syn: taste, appreciation, perceptiveness]
perception of that which is obscure [syn: perceptiveness]
ability to make good judgments [syn: sagacity, sagaciousness, judgment, judgement]
the trait of judging wisely and objectively; "a man of discernment" [syn: discretion]
Wikipedia
Discernment is the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well (or the activity of so doing). In the case of judgment, discernment can be psychological or moral in nature. In the sphere of judgment, discernment involves going past the mere perception of something and making nuanced judgments about its properties or qualities. Considered as a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgement; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others.
Usage examples of "discernment".
I may know a bit more of its intricacies than does Little Arcady at large, but not enough to permit that certain thrill of superior discernment which I have so often been able to enjoy in Slocum County.
Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment.
Among the organics, the Tchi probably stayed awake longest, but they were so busy complaining about the lack of discernment on the part of the other delegations that they probably saw nothing at all.
This is particularly remarkable in that philosophy, which ascribes the discernment of all moral distinctions to reason alone, without the concurrence of sentiment.
As a rule they go in pairs, in antithetic couples, every analysis being dichotomy, since the discernment of one path of abstraction determines in contrast, as a complementary remainder, the opposite path of direction.
He clung to his mistrust the more because of a warning he had from the silenced natural voice: somewhat as we may behold how the Conservatism of a Class, in a world of all the evidences showing that there is no stay to things, comes of the intuitive discernment of its finality.
This is Natural reason itself, encompassed with thick clouds, having yet a discernment of good and evil, a distinction of the true and the false, though it be powerless to fulfil all that it approveth, and possess not yet the full light of truth, nor healthfulness of its affections.
She saw them with the third or ajna eye, the Eye of Shiva which gives inward discernment, but which when turned outward blasts with desiccating heat.
After these few brief discernments, it startled me to find that the garrison was all mounted and drawn up a few yards below the shaft-mouth, with Charnall and Kamin mounted at their head, and Kamin looking as if he'd been waiting awhile for my attention.
With Time and revolutions, whose ravages are, at any rate, marked by impartiality and grandeur, has been associated a host of architects, duly bred, duly certificated, and duly sworn, despoiling with the discernment of bad taste, substituting the chicories of Louis XV for the Gothic lacework, for the greater glory of the Parthenon.
It would be an insult to the discernment of any man with half an eye, to tell him so.
In the early days of a commission, when many of the pressed men were still sad lobcocks, without discernment or sea-legs, it was usual for these exercises to cause a fair amount of damage - so much so that when Stephen returned to the quarterdeck Jack asked, 'What was the butcher's bill this time?
Although I can usually read a mortal mind with embarrassing ease, hers has always been veiled from me, except for a few shifting flickers of discernment here and there—.
Yes, we talked long of kingship-the right ruling of people and nations, the secrets of discernment, the sacred order of sovereignty.
Norris had not discernment enough to perceive, either now, or at any other time, to what degree he thought well of his niece, or how very far he was from wishing to have his own children's merits set off by the depreciation of hers.