1. To notice or learn, especially by making an effort: got home and discovered that the furnace wasn't working.
2. 1. To be the first, or the first of one's group or kind, to find, learn of, or observe.
   2. To learn about for the first time in one's experience: discovered a new restaurant on the west side.
3. To learn something about: discovered him to be an impostor; discovered the brake to be defective.
4. To identify (a person) as a potentially prominent performer: a movie star who was discovered in a drugstore by a producer.
5. Archaic To reveal or expose.

Synonyms: These verbs mean to gain knowledge or awareness of something not known before: discovered a star in a distant galaxy; ascertaining the facts; tried to determine the origins of the problem; learned the sad news from the radio.