From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdistinguishdis‧tin‧guish /dɪˈstɪŋɡwɪʃ/ ●●○ S3 W3 verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]DIFFERENT to recognize and understand the difference between two or more things or people SYN differentiatedistinguish 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► see thesaurus at recognizeRegisterIn everyday English, people usually use the phrases 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 [transitive not in progressive]DIFFERENT to be the thing that makes someone or something different or specialdistinguish 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 [transitive not in progressive]SEE 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→ See Verb table
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” 