differentiation
Americannoun
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the act or process of differentiating, or the state of being differentiated.
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Mathematics. the operation of finding the differential or derivative of a function.
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Biology. the process by which cells or tissues change from relatively generalized to specialized kinds, during development.
noun
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the act, process, or result of differentiating
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maths an operation used in calculus in which the derivative of a function or variable is determined; the inverse of integration See integration
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any process in which a mixture of materials separates out partially or completely into its constituent parts, as in the cooling and solidification of a magma into two or more different rock types or in the gradual separation of an originally homogeneous earth into crust, mantle, and core
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In calculus, the process of computing the derivative of a function.
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Compare integration
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The process by which cells or parts of an organism change during development to serve a specific function. The cells of an animal in its early embryonic phase, for example, are identical at first but develop by differentiation into specific tissues, such as bone, heart muscle, and skin. The factors determining the differentiation of any particular cell are not well understood, but in deuterostomes (vertebrates and other complex animals) they include the location of the cell relative to other cells.
Etymology
Origin of differentiation
First recorded in 1800–10; differentiat(e) + -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Markets allow firms to compete on differentiation, even when the differentiation is of questionable value to consumers.
The elephant's gradiated structure can help with things like object differentiation while foraging and eating -- which they spend the vast majority of their time doing.
From Barron's
Morgan Stanley included a screen of companies — mostly software and services — they say were unfairly sold off in a recent move that was “broad and largely indiscriminate, with limited differentiation across business models or fundamentals.”
From MarketWatch
These trends include specialized artificial intelligence, where management targets special-purpose accelerators tailored for markets like medical and finance for differentiation, the analysts say.
“This differentiation could drive higher enterprise win rates, translating into cloud growth and profitability upside,” Post wrote of Alphabet’s proprietary infrastructure.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
