distinguish, separate, discriminate, contrast, tell apart

differentiate, determine, separate, discriminate, judge, ascertain, tell the difference, characterize, mark, single out, set apart

The word distinguish has many synonyms. Some of the more common synonyms include discern, difference, differentiate, discriminate and separate. One less common synonym of distinguish is the word secern.

The correct spelling of the verb is distinguish(determine, tell apart).

Sometimes it is very hard to distinguish between a species where there is a lot of variation between that of a variation that is actually two separate species. Many times scientist disagree on how to tell these two things apart.