Discreet vs Discrete: Tactful or Separate?

Discreet concerns tact and privacy. Discrete concerns separateness.

She made a discreet enquiry about the vacancy. — careful and not drawing attention.
The model divides responses into three discrete categories. — separate and distinct.

Technical English strongly prefers the distinction

Mathematics, statistics and computing use discrete in established terms such as discrete variables, discrete mathematics and discrete values. Substituting discreet there changes the meaning completely.

A useful memory cue

In discrete, the two e’s are separated by t; think “separate”. A mnemonic is only a bridge, however. The durable solution is to learn the surrounding collocations.

Add examples to a collocation notebook or check them with the procedure in our learner’s dictionary guide.