differentiate

verb differentiates · differentiating · differentiated

1. transitive To modify so as to create a difference or distinction. A humble instance of Ablaut may be quoted which took place in the seventeenth century, when the word then was differentiated into the two forms then and than.
2. transitive To show or be the difference or distinction between things. What differentiates an alligator from a crocodile?
3. transitive To recognize as different or distinct. How do you differentiate a fake smile from a genuine one?
4. transitive To calculate the derivative of a function.
5. transitive To calculate the differential of a function of multiple variables.
6. intransitive To perceive the difference between things; to discriminate. 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.
7. intransitive To teach a lesson in multiple different ways in order to meet the needs of more or less advanced students. Like most teaching, differentiating is a mix of art and science. When it works, "it's like a jazz rhythm," said Carol Tomlinson, an education professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on differentiation.
8. intransitive, transitive To (cause to) go through a process of development called differentiation; to make or become different in form or function. 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.

Similar: transform, differentiate, differentialize (rare) ?, distinguish, individualize, particularize, severalize

noun differentiates

1. Something that has been differentiated or stratified. 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.