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more about discernment
discernment |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Discernment \Dis*cern"ment\, n. [Cf. F. discernement.] 1. The act of discerning. 2. 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. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: discernment n 1: the cognitive condition of someone who understands; "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and effect" [syn: {understanding}, {apprehension}, {savvy}] 2: 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}] 3: perception of that which is obscure [syn: {perceptiveness}] 4: ability to make good judgments [syn: {sagacity}, {sagaciousness}, {judgment}, {judgement}] 5: the trait of judging wisely and objectively; "a man of discenment" [syn: {discretion}]
more about discernment