distinguish

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĭ-stĭngʹgwĭsh, IPA ^(key): /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dis‧tin‧guish

Verb

Plain form distinguish

Third-person singular distinguishes

Past tense distinguished

Past participle distinguished

Present participle distinguishing

1. When you distinguish something, you are trying to make it easy to sort the item out.

   I can't distinguish Jan from Jane because their names are so alike.