- discover
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Analogous words: impart, *communicate: *declare, announce, publish, advertise, proclaim2 Discover, ascertain, determine, unearth, learn mean to find out something not previously known to one.Discover may presuppose investigation or exploration, or it may presuppose accident, but it always implies that the thing existed, either actually or potentially, in fact or in principle but had not been hitherto seen or known or brought into view, action, use, or actual existence{
discover an island
}{discover a new writer
}{idiscover uses for a weed
}{discover the laws of hered- ity
}{those rules of old discovered, not devised— Pope
}{the historian of our times . . . will surely discover that the word reality is of central importance in his understanding of us— Trilling
}{he was fifteen and beginning to become solid. This fall he'd discovered football— La Farge
}Ascertain seldom if ever implies accidental discovery; it usually presupposes an awareness of one's ignorance or uncertainty and conscious efforts (as by study, investigation, observation, and experiment) to find the truth or discover the facts{old paintings were compared to ascertain the dresses of the period— Shaw
}{it has been ascertained by test borings that salt extends for 2200 feet below the surface— Amer. Guide Series: La.
}Determine (see also DECIDE) differs from ascertain only in its greater emphasis upon the intent to establish the facts or the truth or to decide a dispute or controversy. Its use is largely legal and scientific{experts were called to determine the presence or absence of poison in the vital organs
}{if the site of his birthplace can be determined, the memorial will be erected there
}{determine the degree of reaction when ragweed pollen is injected beneath the skin
}{the executor must assemble all available records to determine the decedent's assets and liabilities— Gehman
}Unearth is freely used in the sense of to bring to light or out into the open something that has been hidden, forgotten, or lost or that is exceedingly difficult to trace. Frequently it also suggests intensive or prolonged investigation preceding discovery{unearth old records
}{unearth the evidence necessary for a conviction
}{Accurate scholarship can unearth the whole offense from Luther until now that has driven a culture mad— Auden
}{an early-nineteenth-century globe that Dinah had unearthed in one of the basement rooms— Basso
}Learn implies acquirement of knowledge; it commonly suggests little or no effort on the part of the one who discovers{it was only today that I learned his name
}{Judy learned that the ayah must be left behind— Kipling
}{they have not yet even learnt that "science" is not the accumulation of knowledge . . . but the active organization of knowledge -Ellis
}Analogous words: discern, observe, perceive, espy (see SEE)3 *invent, create
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
