distinguishing
verb
Form of distinguish , present participle of distinguish.
Simple meaning
To recognize someone or something as different from others based on its characteristics.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihstinggwihshingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈtɪŋɡwɪʃɪŋ
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.
verb
present participle of distinguish
To recognize someone or something as different from others based on its characteristics.
present participle of distinguish
To make noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.
present participle of distinguish
Mark as different
present participle of distinguish
Make conspicuous or noteworthy
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To recognize someone or something as different from others based on its characteristics.
Used this way, distinguishing is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Capable of being perceived as different or distinct.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An odd or unusual characteristic.
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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.