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For example, you see a small part of a curtain picture, but from this small part you are able to recognize that this is a "curtain".
Or if your sight is hazy, and you can recognize an object because of its general outline.
My thoughts were on "make out", "discern", or "differentiate". But the last 2 sound more like "recognize from a group of similar looking objects".
So, what's the best word for above case?
You could make out that it was a curtain.
That suggests that enough of the thing's appearance was discernible to enable you to determine what it was.
make out would be synonymous with discern there.
But differentiate refers to the ability to distinguish one thing from another.
We were able to differentiate the good turbine blades from the cracked ones using ultrasound.
