Discrete Meaning
/dɪˈskɹiːt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjSeparate; distinct; individual; non-continuous.
adjThat can be perceived individually, not as connected to, or part of, something else.
Sentence Examples
I am very discrete.
Every march is composed of discrete steps.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The study examined three ____ categories of animal behavior during migration.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I am very ____.
Word Origin & History
From Old French discret, from Latin discrētus, past participle of discernō (“divide”), from dis- + cernō (“sift”). Doublet of discreet.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"There are two laws discrete, / Not reconciled,— / Law for man, and law for thing; / The last builds town and fleet, / But it runs wild, / And doth the man unking."
— a. 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing”, in Poems, 5th edition, Boston: Pillips, Sampson & Co., published 1856, page 120:
"But analysis, penetrating beneath the fact of Sense in search of its ideal factors, declares that this mass of marble is something very different from what it appears : its seeming continuity is broken up into discrete molecules, separated from each other as the stars in the Milky Way are separated ; and its seeming homogeneity is resolved into heterogeneous substances, which are themselves in all probability composite."
— 1875, George Henry Lewes, “The Problem Stated”, in Problems of Life and Mind, volume II, London: Trübner & Co., page 33:
"It's not that there aren't measurable, quantifiable differences between all these categories we impose upon things, it's just that for the most part they fit not into discrete units, but into a continuum."
— 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, pages 254–255:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The study examined three ____ categories of animal behavior during migration.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I am very ____.