Literary notes about discernible (AI summary)
In literature, "discernible" is employed to denote something that can be perceived with varying degrees of clarity—whether it refers to tangible features or abstract qualities. Authors use the term to indicate that a particular element, light and color or emotion and social nuance, emerges just sharply enough to be noticed with careful attention. At times, it marks physical outlines, such as a figure by firelight [1] or stars seen through mist [2], while in other contexts it captures subtle traces of character, thought, or institutional tendencies [3, 4]. This versatility enriches narrative descriptions, allowing readers to sense the barely perceptible details woven into both natural scenes and human affairs [5, 6].
- There it was, plainly discernible by the light of the fire, looking as provoking as ever.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - At first they were faintly discernible in the mist, and above them the later stars still glimmered.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - Hence arose two tendencies, distinct but not opposite, which are constantly discernible in the manners as well as in the laws of the country.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - In this respect the Americans carry to excess a tendency which is, I think, discernible, though in a less degree, amongst all democratic nations.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - The fact is, he tries to make them absolute and cannot succeed; and the traces of conscience, shame and humanity, though faint, are discernible.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley - The outline of society itself was not easily discernible, and constantly confounded with the different powers by which the community was ruled.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville
