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Joe's Cafe, 24/7 pit stop for ESL learners and teachers | April 2008
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Discreet or discrete?

These two words sound exactly the same but have different meanings.

Discreet is an adjective, meaning careful or reserved in one’s speech or actions, often to avoid offending someone or to gain an advantage:

  • He is very discreet.
  • I will make some discreet enquiries for you.

Discrete is an adjective meaning separate, in distinct parts:

  • There are five discrete categories.
  • The units in digital recordings are discrete.
Joe | Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 | Filed under Vocabulary

39 Responses to “Discreet or discrete?”

  1. sunil nair says:
    2nd May 2008 at 11:27 am

    it was so nice to kno d distinct meanings of the two words discreet n discrete.
    V may not realise the importance of the difference in the meaning n understand one for the other. However, in many a competitive exams, it has come as questions to evaluate ur verbal ability by asking d students to differentiate n choose the correct word with reference to the context available in the question.
    thanks for making this difference appear so subtle n easy.

  2. hitesh says:
    2nd May 2008 at 11:47 am

    yes it is realy useful to know something more about some different meaning and its use in normal life

  3. cristina says:
    2nd May 2008 at 1:53 pm

    It was so much useful to know the difference between the two words, also I am afraid that many Spanish speakers had been using it wrong, because it is a false cognate. to be careful in Spanish is “discreto”, so we can
    be used discret in a wrong way.

  4. faiza says:
    3rd May 2008 at 6:40 am

    thanks for these nice,useful information.please keep me on touch!

  5. soltan says:
    4th May 2008 at 11:42 am

    It seems new information to me
    thanks alot

  6. Tiana says:
    4th May 2008 at 5:16 pm

    Thanks

  7. Giang Minh Nhat says:
    5th May 2008 at 12:19 pm

    Thanks for this explanation. Well, I know 2 more English words in order to enrich my vocabulary.

  8. sue says:
    6th May 2008 at 4:48 am

    Thanks a lot
    i love these words

  9. Iren says:
    6th May 2008 at 5:51 am

    Thanks for interesting information. You make an important contribution to our knowlege.

  10. Dina says:
    6th May 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Homonyms always cause truobles even in our native language.
    Thanks a lot for useful information

  11. Samira_Az says:
    6th May 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Hi,Thanks Joe so much! ))) I love to enlarge my vocabulary in order to improve my English..

  12. hanane says:
    6th May 2008 at 8:25 pm

    Hullo Dear Sir, it’s gonna be a great honor for me to take part in this festival of “thankyouing” you.so thank you for caring. i do really love joe’s cafe.

  13. Narmeen says:
    7th May 2008 at 2:38 am

    Wow being an English lecturer I’ve never realised the difference of these 2 words, though I use discreete often but never discrete. Its very informative and refreshing. Please highlight more of these type of words, useful to use in lecture’s quizz.

  14. Alevtina says:
    10th May 2008 at 4:28 pm

    Thank you for such a helpful piece of information. Hope you will continue publishing short and understandable articles on various items, especially words easily confused.

  15. bedri says:
    10th May 2008 at 5:04 pm

    thanks for these confusing words, you know when someone deals with such confusing words , he feels that he has a good account, i.e. rich, thank u for enriching us,thanks for your generosity.

  16. shadia says:
    10th May 2008 at 5:04 pm

    thanks it useful words which some time we canot relaise what mean.

  17. Harjeet Singh says:
    11th May 2008 at 7:23 am

    These words can be confusing if not understood by students as well as teachers. Thank you for the information.

  18. shams says:
    11th May 2008 at 10:16 am

    Thanks for your very nice information about these confusing words, you make an important contribution to my knowlege.

  19. monica says:
    12th May 2008 at 12:08 am

    Thank you,this information about differences in meaning is always very useful.

  20. Ahmed says:
    15th May 2008 at 7:26 am

    thanks alot for the information about the differences.
    you really enrich our background of meanings

  21. Alpesh says:
    16th May 2008 at 4:32 am

    it is really a good to know the words so one can use it appropriately.

    thanks

  22. Aziz says:
    17th May 2008 at 2:05 pm

    I wonder how English Language have all that………..

  23. Manuela Gamero says:
    18th May 2008 at 3:55 pm

    thank you for your explanation. It’s very useful for Portuguese speaking learners and teachers.

  24. bashir says:
    19th May 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Good job! that is the word of the day!

  25. HAJIR says:
    21st May 2008 at 6:09 am

    THANK YOU , THATS MORE INFORMATIVE

  26. alaaayman says:
    22nd May 2008 at 11:37 pm

    Thank you very much . I know another way to enrich my blog : Egyptsuccessland . Indeed ESL blogs is a better chance to know the best friends who help us learn and teach English well.
    Thanks a lot
    alaaayman

  27. alaaayman says:
    23rd May 2008 at 6:17 am

    Thank you very much . I know another way to enrich my blog : Egyptsuccessland . Indeed ESL blogs is a better chance to know the best friends who help us learn and teach English well.
    Thanks a lot
    alaaayman

  28. alaaayman says:
    28th May 2008 at 4:17 am

    Hi, teacher Joe
    Would you mind telling me more information about the folowing words:reason , consequence , result?
    Thanks a lot,
    alaaayman

  29. alaaayman says:
    28th May 2008 at 4:25 am

    Hi, teacher Joe
    What is the best to say:
    Could you ,please, tell me some information about computer?,
    could you tell me some information about computer , please?,
    Please , could you tell me some information about computer ?or
    could you tell me some information about computer?
    Wait from you,
    alaaayman

  30. Nina says:
    16th June 2008 at 1:51 am

    good to know this.

    thanks
    Nina

  31. solange says:
    24th June 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Awsome! It helped me a lot to improve and enlarge my vocabulary. TKX!!

  32. solange says:
    24th June 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Teacher Joe,
    I need to do my final writting for my English course but I really don’t know what to write about yet… I thought about ‘techniques for using music to teach L2 student’…Do u have something about that could helpe me? If yes, please e.mail me!

  33. wafa says:
    25th June 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Dear sir,

    I remmbered one of 7 secrets that you submitted on your websit which says improve your vocabukary 5 word a day at least .

    All my respect and alot of thanks on these great informations to improve our language .

    I really love the way that you do it to benefit us and to know
    the differences of meaning words .

    BTW I saved all your lessons on my computre and I feel happy and proud when I show my friends the new inforamtion that I learned from you .

    waiting more

    Thanks Alots

    Wafa

  34. Joe says:
    26th June 2008 at 10:08 am

    Solange: I think you want Teacher Joe, it’s a different blog:
    http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/teacherjoe/

    Good luck with your project!

  35. Hianmori says:
    4th August 2008 at 7:14 am

    Thanks a lot Joe

  36. Arejdal says:
    11th August 2008 at 2:01 pm

    The mean feature of English compared to other languages that i’ve learned (Tamazight, Français, Arabe) is the big number of confusing words. Words that sound the same but are differentt in transcription. Thanks a lot!!

  37. yassir says:
    12th August 2008 at 9:12 am

    dear joe,
    i would like strongly to thank u for this golden infromation, really it is the first time i know the difference between discreet and discret.i hope that u gonna continue the same way in providing us with new information .

    yassir

  38. Irene Fallavier says:
    11th October 2008 at 8:23 pm

    Dear Joe,

    It is a big help for me to teach english, by showing the difference between homonymes and when to use two different words with the same meaning (ex. say or tell). My students are very much satisfied to learn somethings which are really confusing. Please do continue to give more information about such things. Thank you very much for all your concern and more power.

    Irene

  39. hardlearner says:
    21st December 2008 at 8:29 pm

    thanks for posting the meaning of these two words. As cristina said Spanish speaking people may use the one term discrete with the meaning of the other discreet because discrete closely resembles the Spanish word discreto

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