Search Result for "discerning": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (4)

1. having or revealing keen insight and good judgment;
- Example: "a discerning critic"
- Example: "a discerning reader"

2. unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic;
- Example: "a discerning editor"
- Example: "a discreet silence"
[syn: discerning, discreet]

3. quick to understand;
- Example: "a kind and apprehensive friend"- Nathaniel Hawthorne
[syn: apprehensive, discerning]

4. able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive;
- Example: "discerning taste"
- Example: "a discerning eye for color"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Discern \Dis*cern"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Discerned; p. pr. & vb. n. Discerning.] [F. discerner, L. discernere, discretum; dis- + cernere to separate, distinguish. See Certain, and cf. Discreet.] 1. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish. [1913 Webster] To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. --Boyle. [1913 Webster] A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. --Robynson (More's Utopia). [1913 Webster] 2. To see by the eye or by the understanding; to perceive and recognize; as, to discern a difference. [1913 Webster] And [I] beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding. --Prov. vii. 7. [1913 Webster] Our unassisted sight . . . is not acute enough to discern the minute texture of visible objects. --Beattie. [1913 Webster] I wake, and I discern the truth. --Tennyson. Syn: To perceive; distinguish; discover; penetrate; discriminate; espy; descry; detect. See Perceive. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Discerning \Dis*cern"ing\, a. Acute; shrewd; sagacious; sharp-sighted. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

discerning adj 1: having or revealing keen insight and good judgment; "a discerning critic"; "a discerning reader" [ant: undiscerning] 2: unobtrusively perceptive and sympathetic; "a discerning editor"; "a discreet silence" [syn: discerning, discreet] 3: quick to understand; "a kind and apprehensive friend"- Nathaniel Hawthorne [syn: apprehensive, discerning] 4: able to make or detect effects of great subtlety; sensitive; "discerning taste"; "a discerning eye for color"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

31 Moby Thesaurus words for "discerning": acute, apperceptive, appercipient, argute, astute, cogent, farseeing, farsighted, foreseeing, foresighted, forethoughted, forethoughtful, gnostic, incisive, insightful, judicious, knowing, knowledgeable, longheaded, longsighted, penetrating, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, perspicuous, piercing, provident, sagacious, sage, trenchant, understanding