discrimination

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Discernment, the act of discriminating, discerning, distinguishing, noting or perceiving differences between things, with the intent to understand rightly and make correct decisions.

   “Have you felt the weight of the considerations which have been presented, in order to show the importance of discrimination on the subject of revealed truth?”

   “An earthquake here rolls harmless through the land, And Thou art good because the chimneys stand— There templed cities sink into the sea, And damp survivors, howling as they flee, Skip to the hills and hold a celebration In honor of Thy wise discrimination.”

   “In place of a discrimination box a jumping apparatus was used, and apparently this required performance less foreign to the natural response repertory of the bird.”

   “The 'pretraining' for the two-choice discrimination involved a discrimination between angles differing by 19° (6° versus 25°) in which the smaller angle was marked with a 2 cm Plexiglas square that the bats had previously detected in a simple one-choice discrimination.”

2. (countable, sometimes, uncountable)Differential treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage; treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality; prejudice; bigotry.

   “sexual or racial discrimination”

   “reverse discrimination”

   “The same arguments, however, which have effectually in this State [Rhode Island] maintained the disfranchisement of naturalized citizens, may prevail in those cases in which the State Constitution makes the discrimination against colored persons, as long as those State Constitutions remain in force.”

   “However, is it not true that within the preferred or official territory there are certain discriminations? For instance, are there not certain States in New England that suffer from certain discriminations, in comparison with other States in that official territory?”

3. (uncountable)The quality of being discriminating; acute discernment, especially in matters of good taste.

   “Near-synonym: tastefulness”

   “You are a man of discrimination,” said Qunk, “I admire that girl a little myself, and, entre nous, I think that I'm a bit of a favourite in that quarter.””

   “Take heed, then, lest, while you plume yourselves on your superior wisdom and discrimination, the Great Captain does not arraign you before his court-martial on the charge of blood-guiltiness.”

   “These differences amount to a discrimination by the animal in favour of calcium and against strontium and barium.”

   “In the vocabulary of Madison Avenue, the man of discrimination is one who knows a fine set of luggage when he sees it.”

4. (countable, obsolete)That which discriminates; a distinguishing mark, a characteristic.

   “He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea.”

   “But even if this difference should be still greater, it could never be admitted as forming a specific distinction. For the horns not only differ in individuals of the same species, but in the same individuals at different ages. If we were to attempt to arrange animals solely by their horns, the discriminations would be as endless as uncertain.”

   “The great discriminations of land are three, and it concerns us to know whether it is poor, or rich, or in a middle state.”