secern

Meaning

1. To separate or set apart (someone or something from other persons or things).
2. To separate (something from other things) in the mind; to discriminate, to distinguish.
3. Synonym of secrete (“to extract or separate (a substance) from the blood, etc., for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function”)
4. Of a person or thing: to become separated from others.
5. To secrete a substance.

Synonyms

separate

distinguish

differentiate

tell apart

secernate

severalise

severalize

tell

disjoin

dismiss

disperse

dissociate

disunite

drop

excommunicate

expel

fire

🔥

force out

isolate

keep apart

know

mark

remove

resolve

secrete

segregate

send down

separate off

separate out

sequester

sequestrate

set apart

sunder

uncouple

break

key out

drum out

cashier

cut

decouple

descry

discriminate

disentangle

disestablish

Hyphenated as

se‧cern

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sɪˈsɜːn/

Etymology

PIE word
*swé
Learned borrowing from Latin sēcernere, the present active infinitive of sēcernō (“to put apart, divide, separate, sever, sunder; (figuratively) to disjoin, dissociate, part; to discern, distinguish; to exclude, pull aside, set aside, reject”), from sē- (prefix meaning ‘apart; aside; away’) + cernō (“to divide, separate; to distinguish, sift; to perceive, see; to comprehend, discern, regard, understand; to decide”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to divide, separate, sift”)).
Senses 1.3 and 2.2 (“synonym of secrete”) derive from the use of the Latin word sēcernere to translate Ancient Greek ἀποκρίνειν (apokrínein), the active infinitive participle of ἀποκρίνω (apokrínō, “to set apart, separate; to choose; to reject on inquiry; to answer, reply”).