differentiate

What it means

1. transitiveTo modify so as to create a difference or distinction.

   A humble instance of Ablaut may be quoted which took place in the seventeenth century, when the word then was differentiated into the two forms then and than.

   1873, John Earle, The Philology of the English Tongue, second edition, page 128

   Synonyms: change

2. transitiveTo show or be the difference or distinction between things.

   What differentiates an alligator from a crocodile?

   1 more example

   Taste differentiates a gentleman—for instance, Mr. Addison—from a Hottentot or Laplander.

   1998, W. Ross Winterowd, The English Department: A Personal and Institutional History, Southern Illinois University Press, →ISBN, page 66

   Synonyms: differentialize

3. transitiveTo recognize as different or distinct.

   How do you differentiate a fake smile from a genuine one?

   2 more examples

   In the earlier chapters uncouth proper names are reduced to a minimum, but the Index refers by name to specific places and persons only generally mentioned in the earlier pages. For instance, the states of Lu and Chêng on pages 22 and 29 : it is hard enough to differentiate Ts‘i, Tsin, Ts‘in, and Ts‘u at the outstart, without crowding the memory with fresh names until the necessity for it absolutely arises.

   1908, Edward Harper Parker, Ancient China Simplified, London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., →OCLC, page ix

   The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

   1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC

   Antonyms: conflate

In a sentence

A humble instance of Ablaut may be quoted which took place in the seventeenth century, when the word then was differentiated into the two forms then and than.

1873, John Earle, The Philology of the English Tongue, second edition, page 128

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
2. Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
3. Proto-Indo-European*d(w)is-
4. Proto-Italic*dis-
5. Latindis-
6. Proto-Indo-European*bʰer-
7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéreti
8. Proto-Italic*ferō
9. Latinferō
10. Latindifferō
11. Latindifferēns
12. Latindifferentia
13. New Latindifferentiō
14. New Latindifferentiātus
15. Englishdifferentiate

From New Latin differentiātus, perfect passive participle of differentiō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix)), from Latin differentia (“difference”); see difference.