distinguish

Word family

dis·tin·guish /dɪˈstɪŋɡwɪʃ/ S3 W3 verb

1 [intransitiveI, transitiveT]DIFFERENT to recognize and understand the difference between two or more things or people 區分，辨别 SYN differentiate

distinguish between

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

他的辯護律師辯稱科普無法分辨是非。

distinguish somebody/something from

a method of distinguishing cancer cells from normal tissue

辨别癌細胞和正常組織的一種方法

► see thesaurus at recognize

In everyday English, people usually use the phrases tell the difference between somebody/something or tell somebody/something from somebody/something, rather than distinguish: 在日常英語中,人們一般使用短語 tell the difference between sb/sth 或 tell sb/sth from sb/sth,而不用 distinguish

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

他無法分辨是非。

How do you tell cancer cells from healthy cells?

怎麽區分癌細胞和健康細胞？

2 [transitiveT not in progressive]DIFFERENT to be the thing that makes someone or something different or special 使有區别，使有特色

distinguish somebody/something from

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

使這家公司在競爭中脫穎而出的是其客戶服務。

distinguishing feature/mark/characteristic

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

這一品種的主要特征是葉子的形狀。

3 [transitiveT not in progressive]SEE written to be able to see the shape of something or hear a particular sound 看清；認出；聽出

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

光線太暗，我什麽也看不清。

4 distinguish yourself DO WELLto do something so well that people notice and remember you 表現突出

He distinguished himself on several occasions in the civil war.

他在内戰中屢次表現突出。

Examples from the Corpus

distinguish yourself• Look, we were just kids, who like all kids want to distinguish ourselves from our parents.• Eastwood distinguished himself as an actor before becoming a director.• Bradley has distinguished himself as the top scorer on the team.• He distinguished himself as third-string quarterback for the football team.• During the battle five Troll Slayers distinguished themselves by attacking and destroying three Trolls which were perilously close to crushing Duregar himself.• Tim distinguished himself for eleven years in Miami, including the history-making 1972 undefeated season that climaxed in the 1973 Super Bowl.• She has been unable to effectively distinguish herself from other objects on a sensorimotor level.• The Conservatives under John Major tried to distinguish themselves from their Thatcherite past by stressing a commitment to quality public services.• He was clever, but disinclined to distinguish himself in study, athletic but lazy, honest but argumentative.• Perhaps Hincmar's silence here was tactful, since Charles the Bald's sons had not distinguished themselves in the traditional roles.• After joining the newspaper, she quickly distinguished herself with a series of hard-hitting exposés.

Examples from the Corpus

distinguish• The difficulty in distinguishing between hypotheses was not surprising since only 209 families with Crohn's disease were available for analysis.• They had to distinguish between problems because of a lack of ability from those of a lack of motivation.• Even a expert would find it hard to distinguish between the original painting and the copy.• From that time onwards there was reason still, but not so much reason, to distinguish between trusts and legacies.• The trick in improving quality was to distinguish between variation due to random causes and that due to specific or assignable causes.• Several thousand minerals can be distinguished, each defined by its own set of properties.• There's not a lot that distinguishes her from the other candidates.• A tiny baby soon learns to distinguish its mother's face from other adults' faces.• It was just possible to distinguish the darkened village below.• I shall not attempt to distinguish the particular sources of individual ideas.• What really distinguishes the proposal?• I couldn't distinguish the words, but his tone was clear.• What distinguishes this approach from previous attempts to deal with HIV?

distinguish between• Young children often can't distinguish between TV programs and commercials.

distinguishing feature/mark/characteristic• You know, to put on my passport where it says any scars or distinguishing features.• The contrast of his short-cropped white hair against his deep clayey tan was his only distinguishing feature.• Two rectangular buildings there had a pit sunk in one corner which might be taken as a distinguishing feature.• It is reason, he argued, that is the distinguishing feature of human beings as against other examples of creation.• But the striking and distinguishing feature of organisms is organisation without such simple spatial regularity.• It has a completely unique quality and is obviously one of the distinguishing features of our century.• The evolution of a rudimentary bureaucracy was, by 1180, the distinguishing feature of royal and princely administrations.• The distinguishing feature of the African elephant is the size of its ears.• But race is not the distinguishing characteristic of this growing rape epidemic.• The melodies of most composers have distinguishing characteristics which make them instantly identifiable.

Origin distinguish

(1500-1600) French distinguer, from Latin distinguere “to separate using a sharp pointed object”

dis·tin·guish verb →REGISTER1

Syllable

Corpus

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