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differentiation.

The act or process of differentiating (generally, without a specialized sense).

15 characters5 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dɪf.əˌɹɛn.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdɪf.əˌɹɛn.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/Canada, General-American/dɪf.əˌɹen.ʃiˈæɪ.ʃən/Australia/dəf.əˌɹen.ʃiˈæɪ.ʃən/New-Zealand
  1. The act or process of differentiating (generally, without a specialized sense). The act of treating one thing as distinct from another, or of creating such a distinction; of separating a class of things into categories; of describing a thing by illustrating how it is different from something else.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The act or process of differentiating (generally, without a specialized sense). The process of developing distinct components.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The process by which the components of multicellular life (cells, organs, etc.) are produced and acquire function, as when a seed develops the root and stem, and the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The evolutionary process by which one taxonomic group (species, genus, variety, etc.) becomes distinct from another, or acquires distinct features; the result of such a process: distinctness.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The process of separation of cooling magma into various rock types.

    countable · uncountable
  6. The process of applying the derivative operator to a function; of calculating a function's derivative.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti Proto-Italic *ferō Latin ferō Latin differō Latin differēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin differentia New Latin differentiō New Latin differentiātusbor. English differentiate Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English -ion English differentiation From differentiate + -ion, from different + -iate, from differ + -ent, from Middle English differen, from Old French differer, from Latin differō (“carry apart, put off, defer; differ”), from dis- (“apart”) + ferō (“carry, bear”); cognate with Ancient Greek διαφέρω (diaphérō, “to differ”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.