indiscernibility

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-bor.

Middle English in-

English in-

English discernibility

English indiscernibility

From in- + discernibility.

Noun

indiscernibility (countable and uncountable, plural indiscernibilities)

1. The state or characteristic of being indiscernible; inability to be observed.
   • 1999, Jeremy Waldron, The Law and Disagreement, →ISBN, page 240:

     If I drive without such a device, I am doing something wrong despite the indiscernability of the harm occasioned by the emissions from my car in particular.

2. (often philosophical) Inability to be perceived as distinct from something else; indistinguishability .
   • 2005, Edward Mussawir, “The Cinematics of Jurisprudence: Scenes of Law's Moving Image”, in Law and Literature, volume 17, number 1, page 133:

     Yet, from another perspective entirely, in both genres of analysis—those in which film is taken as medium of law and those in which law is taken as a medium of film—one necessarily acknowledges and approaches a zone of indiscernibility between the two.

Derived terms

• indiscernibility of identicals