differentiate

From New Latin *differentiatus, past participle of differentiare, from Latin differentia (“difference”); see difference.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪ.fəˈɹɛnt.ʃi.eɪt/

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differentiate (third-person singular simple present differentiates, present participle differentiating, simple past and past participle differentiated)

1. (transitive) To show, or be the distinction between two things.
   • Earle

     The word "then" was differentiated into the two forms "then" and "than".

   • 1933, George Orwell, “Ch. XXII”, in Down and Out in Paris and London, Harvest / Harcourt paperback edition, page 120:

     The mass of the rich and poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

2. (intransitive) To perceive the difference between things; to discriminate.
   • 1964, New York Times v. Sullivan:

     he refused to instruct that actual intent to harm or recklessness had to be found before punitive damages could be awarded, or that a verdict for respondent should differentiate between compensatory and punitive damages.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To modify, or be modified.
4. (transitive, mathematics) To calculate the derivative of a function.
5. (transitive, mathematics) To calculate the differential of a function of multiple variables.
6. (intransitive, biology) To produce distinct organs or to achieve specific functions by a process of development called differentiation.
   • 1930, Robert Evans Snodgrass, Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living:

     In Chapter IV we learned that every animal consists of a body, or soma, formed of cells that are differentiated from the germ cells usually at an early stage of development.

• (to show the distinction between things): differentialize; see also Thesaurus:differentiate
• (to perceive the difference between things): differentialize; see also Thesaurus:tell apart
• (to modify): change, transform; see also Thesaurus:alter

• (to show the distinction between things): equate
• (to perceive the difference between things): mix up, muddle up
• (to modify): leave alone, preserve

• differentiation

• differ
• difference
• different
• differential

• differentiate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• differentiate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

differentiate (plural differentiates)

1. (geology) Something that has been differentiated or stratified.
   • 1969, Alexander R. McBirney, Geology and Petrology of the Galápagos Islands, page 185:

     There is no discernable tendency, however, for the differentiates to fall into two extremities, as would be expected if they were trending toward distinct eutectics in a residua system.

   • 1991, Roger H. Mitchell, Petrology of Lamproites, page 10:

     This latter terminology is particularly favored by Soviet petrologists, e.g.. Bogatikov et al. (1985), who believe that any magma typically exhibits both agpaitic and miascitic differentiates.