Other forms: distinctions, distinct, distinctly
A distinction is a difference you can point at. Two things look the same until somebody draws the line between them, and that line is the distinction.
It carries a second, warmer sense: distinction as honour. A soldier serves with distinction, a student passes with distinction, and a writer of distinction is one everybody rates. Both senses come from the same idea of being marked out from the rest. The phrase to watch is draw a distinction — that is what you do with one — and the adjective distinct means clearly separate, not merely different.
1noundistinctionA grade awarded for outstanding work.~8%
“She was awarded a distinction in every paper.”
2noundifferenceA difference between two things, especially one worth naming.~41%
“He drew a careful distinction between a lie and a mistake.”
synonyms: difference, contrast
3nounhonourHonour, or the mark of high quality.~49%
“She finished the course with distinction.”
4nounstateThe state of being famous or highly respected.~2%
“A pianist of real distinction.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 26 sentences found in the wild and placed 26 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
distinction is a kind of difference.
dis-TINC-tion → one of them STINKs
Two cartons of milk on the counter, exactly the same to look at. You open them both. One of them stinks.
hooks ontostink
From Latin distinguere, to separate — the same root as distinguish and distinct. A distinction is a line drawn between two things so that you can tell one from the other.
Latin
distinctio
Old French
distinction
Middle English
distinccioun
English, today
distinction
Built from
From Middle English distinccioun, from Old French distinction (attested from the 12th century), borrowed from Latin distinctio, action noun of distinguō (“separate, distinguish”). by surface analysis, distinct + -ion. Attested in English from the late 14th century.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA