tell apart

1. 1.

   detect with the senses

   “The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards”

   “I can't make out the faces in this photograph”

   Synonymsspotrecognizerecognisedistinguishdiscernpick outmake out

   Narrowerresolvediscriminate
2. 2.

   mark as different

   “We distinguish several kinds of maple”

   Synonymsdistinguishseparatedifferentiatesecernsecernateseveralizeseveralisetell

   Broaderidentify

   Narrowerknowdiscriminatelabelsexindividualizecontrasthave the distinctionseveralizecontradistinguishdecouple

Questions about tell apart

What does tell apart mean?

tell apart means "detect with the senses". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for tell apart?

Close synonyms include spot, recognize, recognise, distinguish, discern. 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 tell apart a common word?

tell apart is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.