distinction
noun
Simple meaning
A feature that causes someone or something to stand out as being better.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihstingkshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈtɪŋkʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
specifically
A feature that causes someone or something to stand out as being better; a mark of honour, rank, eminence or excellence; the quality of being distinguished.
A feature that causes someone or something to stand out from others of its type.
That which distinguishes; a single occurrence of a determining factor or feature, the fact of being divided; separation, discrimination.
The act of distinguishing, discriminating; discrimination.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (specifically) A feature that causes someone or something to stand out as being better; a mark of honour, rank, eminence or excellence; the quality of being distinguished.
Used this way, distinction is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Successful and accomplished
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use distinction
- “It is necessary to make a distinction between love and infatuation.”noun
- “He learned the distinction between gold and lead.”noun
- “She graduated with the highest distinction.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Be distinguished from others of a similar type by virtue of a notable characteristic.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: feature that causes someone
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.