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View synonyms for separate

separate

[ verb sep-uh-reyt; adjective noun sep-er-it ]

verb (used with object)

, sep·a·rat·ed, sep·a·rat·ing.
  1. to keep apart or divide, as by an intervening barrier or space:

    to separate two fields by a fence.

    Synonyms: split, sunder, sever

    Antonyms: connect, unite

  2. to put, bring, or force apart; part:

    to separate two fighting boys.

    Synonyms: split, sunder, sever

    Antonyms: connect, unite

  3. to set apart; disconnect; dissociate:

    to separate church and state.

    Synonyms: disengage, disjoin

    Antonyms: connect, unite

  4. to remove or sever from association, service, etc., especially legally or formally:

    He was separated from the army right after V-E Day.

  5. to sort, part, divide, or disperse (an assemblage, mass, compound, etc.), as into individual units, components, or elements.
  6. to take by parting or dividing; extract (usually followed by from or out ):

    to separate metal from ore.

  7. Mathematics. to write (the variables of a differential equation) in a form in which the differentials of the independent and dependent variables are, respectively, functions of these variables alone: Compare separation of variables.

    We can separate the variables to solve the equation.



verb (used without object)

, sep·a·rat·ed, sep·a·rat·ing.
  1. to part company; withdraw from personal association (often followed by from ):

    to separate from a church.

  2. (of a married pair) to stop living together but without getting a divorce.
  3. to draw or come apart; become divided, disconnected, or detached.
  4. to become parted from a mass or compound:

    Cream separates from milk.

  5. to take or go in different directions:

    We have to separate at the crossroad.

adjective

  1. detached, disconnected, or disjoined.

    Synonyms: discrete, unattached

  2. unconnected; distinct; unique:

    two separate questions.

  3. being or standing apart; distant or dispersed:

    two separate houses;

    The desert has widely separate oases.

    Synonyms: isolated, secluded

  4. existing or maintained independently:

    separate organizations.

    Synonyms: independent

  5. individual or particular:

    each separate item.

  6. not shared; individual or private:

    separate checks;

    separate rooms.

  7. Sometimes Sep·a·rate. noting or relating to a church or other organization no longer associated with the original or parent organization.

noun

  1. Usually sep·a·rates. women's outer garments that may be worn in combination with a variety of others to make different ensembles, as matching and contrasting blouses, skirts, and sweaters.
  2. a bibliographical unit, as an article, chapter, or other portion of a larger work, printed from the same type but issued separately, sometimes with additional pages.

separate

verb

  1. tr to act as a barrier between

    a range of mountains separates the two countries

  2. to put or force or be put or forced apart
  3. to part or be parted from a mass or group
  4. tr to discriminate between

    to separate the men from the boys

  5. to divide or be divided into component parts; sort or be sorted
  6. to sever or be severed
  7. intr (of a married couple) to cease living together by mutual agreement or after obtaining a decree of judicial separation
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


adjective

  1. existing or considered independently

    a separate problem

  2. disunited or apart
  3. set apart from the main body or mass
  4. distinct, individual, or particular
  5. solitary or withdrawn
  6. sometimes capital designating or relating to a Church or similar institution that has ceased to have associations with an original parent organization
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈseparateness, noun
  • ˈseparately, adverb
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Other Words From

  • sep·a·rate·ly adverb
  • sep·a·rate·ness noun
  • non·sep·a·rat·ing adjective
  • pre·sep·a·rate verb (used with object) preseparated preseparating
  • re·sep·a·rate verb reseparated reseparating
  • un·sep·a·rate adjective
  • un·sep·a·rate·ness noun
  • un·sep·a·rat·ed adjective
  • un·sep·a·rat·ing adjective
  • well-sep·a·rat·ed adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of separate1

First recorded in 1400–50; from late Middle English (noun and adjective), from Latin sēparātus, past participle of sēparāre, equivalent to sē- se- + parāre “to furnish, produce, obtain”; prepare
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Word History and Origins

Origin of separate1

C15: from Latin sēparāre, from sē- apart + parāre to obtain
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Synonym Study

Separate, divide imply a putting apart or keeping apart of things from each other. To separate is to remove from each other things previously associated: to separate a mother from her children. To divide is to split or break up carefully according to measurement, rule, or plan: to divide a cake into equal parts.
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Example Sentences

We could have looped back, but instead followed a separate trail to Pounds Hollow Lake.

Here again, that only serves to further separate the haves from the have-nots.

From Vox

The two were separated, and Ujiri eventually joined the team and did a TV interview.

At a time when we need whatever unity we can find and sports might be one place to find it, the anthem could be a two-minute span when we agree that we’re all Americans, that we should be together rather than separate.

The result was the Ignite, a separate team of elite prospects, surrounded by handpicked veterans, that has no affiliation with an NBA franchise.

There is, however, a separate wing of AQAP designed to inspire their followers to conduct attacks against the West.

My younger, straighter-than-an-arrow son was stopped and arrested in two separate jurisdictions a few years ago.

We separate the search for justice from the search for truth at our peril.

“I never felt that culture and the arts were separate from politics,” he says.

“She was hot-headed, had her own way of doing things,” Gill said—and so, he left to form a separate militia group.

It was an error not to separate borrowing entirely from monetary issues.

He devoured it whole with a kind of visual gulp—a flash; the entire meaning first, then lines, then separate words.

By a device resorted to in each separate case to help make a more vivid First Impression.

It has one separate room where poor Spanish women are treated, which generally has from twelve to twenty women.

Therefore, every piece had its own separate voice in exact proportion to the amount of trouble spent upon it.

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separableseparate but equal