discretion

1. 1.

   freedom to act or judge on one's own

   Broaderliberty
2. 2.

   knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress

   “the servants showed great tact and discretion”

   Synonymsdiscreetnesscircumspectionprudence

   Broadersagacity

   Narrowerconfidentiality
3. 3.

   refined taste; tact

   Synonymsdelicacy

   Broadertaste
4. 4.

   the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies

   Synonymsfree will

   Broaderpower

   Narrowerself-determination
5. 5.

   the trait of judging wisely and objectively

   “a man of discernment”

   Synonymsdiscernment

   Broaderwisdom

   Narrowercircumspectionprudence

Other forms of discretion

plural

discretions·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about discretion

What does discretion mean?

discretion means "freedom to act or judge on one's own". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in discretion?

discretion has 3 syllables: di-scret-ion. The stress falls on "scret". In IPA it is /dɪˈskɹɛʃən/.

What is another word for discretion?

Close synonyms include discreetness, circumspection, prudence, delicacy, free will. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is discretion a common word?

discretion is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with discretion?

1 word rhymes with discretion. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.