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descry

3 synonyms and 2 antonyms for descry, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Verb — To make something known; to reveal it.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

spy

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

Synonyms by Meaning

1. verb

To make something known; to reveal it.

2. verb

(literary) To catch sight of something that is far away or hard to see.

“Dimly through the mists they could descry the long arm of the mountains rising on their left.”

Opposites

Etymology

From Middle English descrien, descriven in the 14th century already had the dual sense of "to proclaim, announce, make known" and "to see, discern, discover". On the one hand, the Middle English word is a loan Old French descrier (“to proclaim, announce, cry”), from des- + crier (“shout, cry”); in this case, the word i...

Full origin of descry →

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Synonyms and antonyms from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.