n. The act of discerning.n. Acuteness of judgment; discrimination; a considerable power of perceiving differences in regard to matters of morals and conduct: as, the errors of youth often proceed from the want of discernment; also, the faculty of distinguishing; the exercise of this faculty.n. Synonyms Penetration, Discrimination, Discernment, judgment, intelligence, acuteness, acumen, clear-sightedness, sagacity, shrewdness, insight. Penetration, or insight, goes to the heart of a subject, reads the inmost character, etc. Discrimination marks the differences in what it finds. Discernment combines both these ideas.