distinction

1. 1.

   a discrimination between things as different and distinct on the basis of their characteristics or attributes

   “it is necessary to make a distinction between love and infatuation”

   Synonymsdifferentiation

   Broaderdiscrimination

   Narrowercontradistinctionlinehairsplitting
2. 2.

   high status importance owing to marked superiority

   “a scholar of great eminence”

   Synonymseminencepreeminencenote

   Broaderhigh status

   Narrowerking
3. 3.

   a distinguishing difference between similar things or people

   “he learned the distinction between gold and lead”

   Broaderdifference
4. 4.

   an honor awarded to someone in recognition of achievement or superiority

   “she graduated with the highest distinction”

   Broaderaward

Other forms of distinction

plural

distinctions·

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 distinction

What does distinction mean?

distinction means "a discrimination between things as different and distinct on the basis of their characteristics or attributes". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in distinction?

distinction has 3 syllables: di-stinc-tion. The stress falls on "stinc". In IPA it is /dɪˈstɪŋkʃən/.

What is another word for distinction?

Close synonyms include differentiation, eminence, preeminence, note. 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 distinction a common word?

distinction 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 distinction?

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