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tell apart

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tell (somebody/something) apart

also tell which is which

to be able to see the difference between one person or thing and another One guy's a Democrat and the other's a Republican, but it wasn't always easy to tell them apart. The twins are no longer as hard to tell apart as when they were little babies. She held out two flowers, but I couldn't tell which was which.

See also: apart, tell

tell apart

Discern or distinguish, as in It's hard to tell the twins apart. [First half of 1900s]

See also: apart, tell

tell apart

v.

To perceive something as being different or distinct from something else: I couldn't tell apart the real $20 bill from the counterfeit one. The twins were identical, and we couldn't tell them apart.

See also: apart, tell