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secern

Pronunciation: /sɪˈsɜːn/

The English word “secern” has 5 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To separate or set apart (someone or something from other persons or things).
  2. To separate (something from other things) in the mind; to discriminate, to distinguish.
  3. Synonym of secrete (“to extract or separate (a substance) from the blood, etc., for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function”).
  4. Of a person or thing: to become separated from others.
  5. To secrete a substance.

Etymology

PIE word *swé Learned borrowing from Latin sēcernere, the present active infinitive of sēcernō (“to put apart, divide, separate, sever, sunder; (figuratively) to disjoin, dissociate, part; to discern, distinguish; to exclude, pull aside, set aside, reject”), from sē- (prefix meaning ‘apart; aside; away’) + cernō (“to divide, separate; to distinguish, sift; to perceive, see; to comprehend,…

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