discern

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
discern /dɪˈsəːn/

▶verb recognize or find out.

■ see or hear with difficulty: she could faintly discern the shape of a skull.

– derivatives
discerner noun,
discernible,
discernibly adverb.

– origin ME: via OFr. from L. discernere, from dis- ‘apart’ + cernere ‘to separate’.