# discrete
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /dɪˈskɹiːt/
** Audio (US):(file)
** Audio (New Jersey):(file)
* Homophone: discreet
* Rhymes: -iːt

### Etymology 1

From Old French discret, from Latin discrētus, past participle of discernō (“divide”), from dis- + cernō (“sift”). Doublet of discreet.

#### Adjective

discrete (comparative more discrete, superlative most discrete)
* Separate; distinct; individual; non-continuous.
    a government with three discrete divisions
** a. 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing”, in Poems, 5th edition, Boston: Pillips, Sampson & Co., published 1856, page 120:There are two laws discrete, / Not reconciled,— / Law for man, and law for thing; / The last builds town and fleet, / But it runs wild, / And doth the man unking.
** 1875, George Henry Lewes, “The Problem Stated”, in Problems of Life and Mind, volume II, London: Trübner & Co., page 33:But analysis, penetrating beneath the fact of Sense in search of its ideal factors, declares that this mass of marble is something very different from what it appears : its seeming continuity is broken up into discrete molecules, separated from each other as the stars in the Milky Way are separated ; and its seeming homogeneity is resolved into heterogeneous substances, which are themselves in all probability composite.
** 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, pages 254–255:It's not that there aren't measurable, quantifiable differences between all these categories we impose upon things, it's just that for the most part they fit not into discrete units, but into a continuum.
* That can be perceived individually, not as connected to, or part of, something else.
* (mathematics) Consisting of or permitting only distinct values drawn from a finite, countable set.
    a discrete sum
* (electrical engineering) Having separate electronic components, such as individual diodes, transistors and resistors, as opposed to integrated circuitry.
* (audio engineering) Having separate and independent channels of audio, as opposed to multiplexed stereo or quadraphonic, or other multi-channel sound.
* (topology) Having each singleton subset open: said of a topological space or a topology.
* Disjunctive; containing a disjunctive or discretive clause.
    "I resign my life, but not my honour" is a discrete proposition.

##### Usage notes

* Although cognate and identical in the Middle English period, the term has become distinct from discreet.

##### Antonyms

* continuous
* (antonym(s) of “electrical engineering”): integrated
* (antonym(s) of “audio engineering”): multiplexed

##### Derived terms

* bidiscrete
* discrete binning
* discrete category
* discrete choice analysis
* discrete component
* discrete Fourier transform
* discretely
* discrete manufacturing
* discrete math
* discrete mathematics
* discrete metric
* discreteness
* discrete random variable
* discrete set
* discrete time
* discrete-time
* discrete-time Markov chain
* discrete-time signal
* discrete topology
* discrete valuation
* discrete valuation ring
* discrete variable
* discretisation
* discretize
* non-discrete
* nondiscrete
* prodiscrete
* pseudodiscrete
* quasidiscrete
* semidiscrete
* ultradiscrete

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2
#### Adjective

discrete (comparative discreter, superlative discretest)
* Obsolete form of discreet.

### Anagrams

* desertic, discreet

## Italian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /diˈskre.te/, /diˈskrɛ.te/
* Rhymes: -ete, -ɛte
* Hyphenation: di‧scré‧te, di‧scrè‧te

### Adjective

discrete
* feminine plural of discreto

### References

* ↑ discreto in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

### Anagrams

* credesti

## Latin
### Participle

discrēte
* vocative masculine singular of discrētus

## Romanian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [disˈkre.te]

### Adjective

discrete
* indefinite feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of discret