Discreet and discrete

Just to be a pain, both of these words are adjectives!

Endangered Arizona Pygmy Owl. Arizona Game & Fish Dept.

To be discreet, someone or something is being careful or using caution, so as not to be too obvious... "The presence of Christmas was discreet - a moderately-decorated spruce here, a string of lights there." From Christmas in Rome by Philip Marsden. To be described as discrete, something is seen to be a separate thing... "The endangered Arizona pygmy-owl is discrete from the remainder of the species."

A good way of remembering the difference (spelling and grammar checkers don't know the difference!) is that the t in discrete separates the two e's... they are discrete.

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