discern vs sense

discern

verb
  • To detect with the senses, especially with the eyes. 

  • To distinguish something as being different from something else; to differentiate. 

  • To perceive, recognize, or comprehend with the mind; to descry. 

  • To perceive differences. 

sense

verb
  • To use biological senses: to either see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. 

  • To instinctively be aware. 

  • To comprehend. 

noun
  • Perception through the intellect; apprehension; awareness. 

  • One of two opposite directions in which a vector (especially of motion) may point. See also polarity. 

  • A natural appreciation or ability. 

  • The way that a referent is presented. 

  • The meaning, reason, or value of something. 

  • A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary. 

  • Sound practical or moral judgment. 

  • Any of the manners by which living beings perceive the physical world: for humans sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste. 

  • referring to the strand of a nucleic acid that directly specifies the product. 

  • One of two opposite directions of rotation, clockwise versus anti-clockwise. 

  • Any particular meaning of a word, among its various meanings. 

How often have the words discern and sense occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )