这些动词均有“区别、辨别”之意。
discern : 语义较笼统，着重精深与准确的观察力，不一定有能分辨关系密切的各项事物的含义。
- I could just discern a figure in the darkness.
在黑暗中我只能看出一个人影。 - It is difficult to discern any pattern in these figures.
在这些数字中很难找出规律。 - It is possible to discern a number of different techniques in her work.
从她的作品中可以识别出许多不同的创作手法。 - He discerned a certain coldness in their welcome.
他觉察到他们的欢迎有点冷淡。 - It is often difficult to discern how widespread public support is.
了解公众支持的广泛程度常常是困难的。
discriminate : 语气强，指从十分相似的事物中辨出差异，尤其把好坏区分开来。
- Police dogs can discriminate between the different smells.
警犬能辨别各种不同的气味。 - The computer program was unable to discriminate between letters and numbers.
这计算机程序不能辨别字母与数字。 - When do babies learn to discriminate voices?
婴儿什么时候学会辨别嗓音呢？ - A number of features discriminate this species from others.
有许多特征使这一物种与其他物种区别开来。
distinguish : 普通用词，指辨别者的能力或实际观察到的区别，强调辨别所需的技巧。
- He's colour-blind and can't distinguish (the difference) between red and green easily.
他是色盲，很难分清红色和绿色（的不同）。 - I sometimes have difficulty distinguishing Spanish from Portuguese.
我有时很难分清西班牙语和葡萄牙语。 - It's important to distinguish between business and pleasure.
分清什么是正事什么是娱乐非常重要。 - It's not the beauty so much as the range of his voice that distinguishes him from other tenors.
他与其他男高音大不相同，并非因为他那华美的声音，而是他宽广的音域。
