The distinguishing mark of the species is its plumage.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Adjective : Intricate rhyming is a distinguishing feature of her poetry.    From Dictionary.com. 

Verb (used with object) : He was distinguished from the other boys by his height. ,It is hard to distinguish her from her twin sister. ,He could not distinguish many of the words. ,It is his Italian accent that distinguishes him. ,to distinguish oneself in battle. ,Let us distinguish the various types of metaphor.    From Dictionary.com. 

I can see how it could be useful in distinguishing between.    From Wordnik.com.  [Inner Spaces II: All right « Motivated Grammar] Reference

Divine grace triumphs in distinguishing by an act of sovereignty.    From Wordnik.com.  [Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi)] Reference

I'm not sure there's a point in distinguishing between influence and bias.    From Wordnik.com.  [GTA IV And The Dark Knight: Films And Games In 2008] Reference

For example, the integer label distinguishing the different Fourier modes can have many interpretations.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Reference Frame] Reference

Americans have more difficulty than Canadians in distinguishing the differences between the two countries.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sleeping with the Elephant] Reference

One needs to be rigorous though in distinguishing such historic changes from romanticized versions of history.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Trend?] Reference

Which is to say, I can certainly see your point in distinguishing between the confessional mode and modernism.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Glamorously Hopeless Cause : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation] Reference

According to Dr. Schmidt of Analog, this is the crucial point in distinguishing science fiction from other forms.    From Wordnik.com.  [A False Choice] Reference

It doesn't seem like your extrapolation is of much use in distinguishing whether life is the result of geochemistry or not.    From Wordnik.com.  [When Mixing Science and Theology is OK] Reference

The problem is in distinguishing the difference between some of the established religious with Scientology, and other cults.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientology Exposed] Reference

One of the main, possibly THE main distinguishing characteristic of a conservative is respect for traditions and institutions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Matthew Yglesias » The Ontology of Miranda Rights] Reference

Astrid discusses the difficulty in distinguishing between symptoms of mental illness and the effects of living in an institution.    From Wordnik.com.  [My BADD 2009 Round-up « Gin&Comment] Reference

Dressed in distinguishing blue trousers and overalls and attended by guards, the prisoners did worse each day than the day before.    From Wordnik.com.  [Humanizing the Prisons] Reference

The main distinguishing characteristic of these millenarian political projects, these bloodthirsty utopias, was intellectual dishonesty.    From Wordnik.com.  [MIND MELD: Is Science Fiction Antithetical to Religion?] Reference

I suppose this is one of the side-effects, or spin-offs, of the difficulty that Americans have in distinguishing between our two countries.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sleeping with the Elephant] Reference

At the same time, I have read press reports suggesting that there is some difficulty in distinguishing between our speaker and his major opponent.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Address Presented During the 1984 Canadian General Election] Reference

That is obviously a different case than protecting the brand for commercial purposes, and there is not likely to be any ambiguity in distinguishing thecases.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Volokh Conspiracy » Citizens United to stop the Citizens [who are] United Against Citizens United] Reference

Overworked phrases like "The War on Terror" or "America's New War" accomplish little in distinguishing one news organization from another when everyone else is using them.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Nation, Unquestionable: The News Media Responds to September 11] Reference

For Dewey, a more useful form of "judgment" consists in distinguishing "particulars and parts with respect to their weight and function in formation of an integral experience.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Perfecting the Power to Perceive] Reference

Those books also too easily assume that because by today's standards nearly all white southerners were racist, there's no point in distinguishing among their "racist" attitudes.    From Wordnik.com.  [The South in Black and White] Reference

(a site that asks users to teach a computer what is and isn't spam by voting on messages) reveals humans 'extreme difficulty in distinguishing spam from not-spam.    From Wordnik.com.  [Boing Boing: May 14, 2006 - May 20, 2006 Archives] Reference

Mean World Syndrome is described as the distinguishing characteristic of Media Induced.    From Wordnik.com.  [WN.com - Articles related to America Ferrera too busy to plan wedding] Reference

Brahman makes himself intelligible, required some name distinguishing them from the hosts of minor deities.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1] Reference

This little scribble of figures in pencil at the back – 144,000 – can scarcely be called a distinguishing mark.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective] Reference

In 1957, psychology and social science researcher Donald Campbell famously developed the idea of distinguishing between internal and external validity of an experiment.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Corner on National Review Online] Reference

The appearance and design of the characters is bland, many of them lacking any kind of distinguishing feature.    From Wordnik.com.  [Comic Break: George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards #2] Reference

Mean World Syndrome is described as the distinguishing characteristic of Media Induced Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (MIPTSD).    From Wordnik.com.  [WN.com - Articles related to America Ferrera too busy to plan wedding] Reference

We need locally benched standards such as distinguishing an acorn from an oak tree before throwing the rest of the universe in.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-02-01] Reference

I’m just glad that there were labels distinguishing the two!.    From Wordnik.com.  [EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Shocking comparison of Crysis and Real Life] Reference

Obama must have difficulty nowadays distinguishing which is which.    From Wordnik.com.  [EzineArticles] Reference

“I’m just glad that there were labels distinguishing the two”.    From Wordnik.com.  [EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Shocking comparison of Crysis and Real Life] Reference

But distinguishing which is the primary and which the secondary intention is in practice often difficult.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed] Reference

It has a page of words that look alike and they have to read through them, distinguishing which is which.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Pioneer Woman - Full RSS Feed] Reference

We do not assign internal blame for a mistake, such as distinguishing between reporting and editing errors.    From Wordnik.com.  [Regret the Error] Reference

"And the other little girl, is she a relation? for I have no difficulty in distinguishing which is my niece.".    From Wordnik.com.  [In the Eastern Seas] Reference

This is known as the distinguishing that takes a characteristic feature concerning an item (don-la mtshan-par ‘dzin-pa’i ‘du-shes).    From Wordnik.com.  [Mind and Mental Factors: The Fifty-one Types of Subsidiary Awareness] Reference

"distinguishing" flags aren't in the public domain.    From Wordnik.com.  [Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]] Reference

Dealer Jim Muir remembers the days when GM sold two brands of trucks whose only distinguishing marks were different hoods.    From Wordnik.com.  [Brand Power] Reference