dis‧tin‧guish S3 W3 / dɪstɪŋɡwɪʃ / 动词

1 [不及物和及物动词] to recognize and understand the difference between two or more things or people 同义词 differentiate

distinguish between

His attorney argued that Cope could not distinguish between right and wrong.

distinguish somebody/something from

a method of distinguishing cancer cells from normal tissue

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In everyday English, people usually use the 短语 tell the difference between somebody/something or tell somebody/something from somebody/something , rather than distinguish :

He can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.

How do you tell cancer cells from healthy cells?

2 [及物动词，不用于进行时] to be the thing that makes someone or something different or special

distinguish somebody/something from

The factor that distinguishes this company from the competition is customer service.

distinguishing feature/mark/characteristic

The main distinguishing feature of this species is the leaf shape.

3 [及物动词，不用于进行时] written to be able to see the shape of something or hear a particular sound :

The light was too dim for me to distinguish anything clearly.

4 distinguish yourself to do something so well that people notice and remember you :

He distinguished himself on several occasions in the civil war.

THESAURUS

recognize to know who someone is or what something is, especially because you have seen or heard them before : I hadn’t seen her for ten years, but I recognized her immediately. | Do you recognize this song?

identify to recognize someone or something and say who or what they are : As they came closer, I was able to identify two of the group. | It’s delicious but I can’t quite identify the taste.

distinguish to recognize and understand the difference between two or more things or people : By this age, kids can usually distinguish between right and wrong. | It’s often difficult to distinguish identical twins from each other.

make something/somebody out to be able to see or hear something or someone – used when it is very difficult to do this : In the distance, I could just make out the outline of an island. | He whispered something but I couldn’t make out what it was.

discern / dɪsɜn $ -ɜrn / formal to notice or understand something by looking carefully or thinking about it carefully : I thought I discerned a faint gleam of hope in his eyes. | A number of differences can be discerned in the data for the three countries.