Differentiate means to

• A. To determine or recognize the difference between two or more things; to distinguish
• B. To confuse two items
• C. To remove distinctions
• D. To coincide

Answer: (A)

Differentiate means to tell the difference between two or more things, to distinguish them from one another. This is exactly what the option captures: it focuses on recognizing what makes items unique rather than the same. The other ideas miss the point—confusing two items would mix them up, removing distinctions would erase the differences, and to coincide means things happen together or are the same, not about identifying how they differ. For example, you differentiate between a banana and an orange by color, shape, or taste. In everyday use, differentiate is about noticing distinctions; in math it can mean something more technical, like finding a derivative, but in this context it means distinguishing.