Distinction, distinct or distinctive may refer to: * Distinction (philosophy), the recognition of difference * Formal distinction *

Distinction (law) Distinction (principle of distinction) is a principle under international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict, whereby belligerents must distinguish between combatants and protected civilians. Combatant in thi ...

, a principle in international law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict * Distinction (sociology), a social force that places different values on different individuals *

Distinct (mathematics) In mathematics, an inequation is a statement that either an ''inequality'' (relations "greater than" and "less than", ) or a relation "not equal to" (≠) holds between two values. It is usually written in the form of a pair of expressions den ...

Distinctive feature In linguistics, a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonology, phonological structure that distinguishes one Phone (phonetics), sound from another within a language. For example, the feature Voice (phonetics), voice''distinguishes ...

, a concept in linguistics * ''Distinción'', in Spanish, separating consonantal sounds, see

Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives In Spanish dialects and varieties, Spanish dialectology, the realization of Coronal consonant, coronal Fricative, fricatives is one of the most prominent features distinguishing various dialect regions. The main three realizations are the phonem ...

* The Hua–Yi distinction, the difference between ''China'' (Hua) and barbarian outsiders (Yi), applied culturally and ethnically * '' Distinction (book)'', a book by Pierre Bourdieu * Distinction (horse), Irish gelding, third in the 2005 Melbourne Cup * Distinction (song), song and album by The Suffrajets

Awards and honors

* an

Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

or quality of an award recipient *

Latin honors Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

, indications of relative achievement among academic degree recipients * Any one of the Nine Distinctions, awarded by the Chinese emperor *

Order of Distinction The Order of Distinction (OD) is a national order in the Jamaican honours system. It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament (''The National Honours and Awards Ac ...

, award in the Jamaican school honours system * in Austrian Bundesheer, German Bundeswehr and

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army () is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The ...

synonym for ''rank insignia''

Awards and honors

See also