Showing results for "distinguishing"

• present participle of distinguish.

distinguishing

American  

[dih-sting-gwi-shing] / dɪˈstɪŋ gwɪ ʃɪŋ /

adjective

1. distinctive; characteristic, as a definitive feature of an individual or group.

   Intricate rhyming is a distinguishing feature of her poetry.

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Other Word Forms

• nondistinguishing
  adjective
• self-distinguishing
  adjective
• undistinguishing
  adjective
• distinguishingly
  adverb
• undistinguishingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of distinguishing

First recorded in 1660–70; distinguish + -ing ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

distinguishing

"So for example, people of colour, gender, queer people, people with kind of interesting and distinguishing facial features, it means that they're going to be left out," she said.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

Influenced by William Goodell, Gerrit Smith, Lysander Spooner and other abolitionists, he began distinguishing the Constitution’s public language from the private intentions of some framers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

She stressed, however, the importance of distinguishing between literary criticism and what often passes for such on social media but which, in her view, amounts to "advertising."

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

First, practice distinguishing between what the Constitution says and what judges and justices say about the Constitution, a document riddled with aspirational vagaries and flexible abstractions.

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026

My gaze was fixed without object upon the encampment, the dim figures who, an arm or a cheek caught in the distinguishing gesture of flame, huddled or moved about the mob of soldiery.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson