separate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
separates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
separated,
past participle, past
-
separating
present participle
-
to keep apart or divide, as by an intervening barrier or space.
to separate two fields by a fence.
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to put, bring, or force apart; part.
to separate two fighting boys.
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to set apart; disconnect; dissociate.
to separate church and state.
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to remove or sever from association, service, etc., especially legally or formally.
He was separated from the army right after V-E Day.
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to sort, part, divide, or disperse (an assemblage, mass, compound, etc.), as into individual units, components, or elements.
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to take by parting or dividing; extract (usually followed by from orout ).
to separate metal from ore.
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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.
We can separate the variables to solve the equation.
verb (used without object)
-
separates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
separated,
past participle, past
-
separating
present participle
-
to part company; withdraw from personal association (often followed byfrom ).
to separate from a church.
-
(of a married pair) to stop living together but without getting a divorce.
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to draw or come apart; become divided, disconnected, or detached.
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to become parted from a mass or compound.
Cream separates from milk.
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to take or go in different directions.
We have to separate at the crossroad.
adjective
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detached, disconnected, or disjoined.
- Synonyms:
- discrete, unattached
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unconnected; distinct; unique.
two separate questions.
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being or standing apart; distant or dispersed.
two separate houses;
The desert has widely separate oases.
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existing or maintained independently.
separate organizations.
- Synonyms:
- independent
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individual or particular.
each separate item.
-
not shared; individual or private.
separate checks;
separate rooms.
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Sometimes Separate noting or relating to a church or other organization no longer associated with the original or parent organization.
noun
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Usually separates 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.
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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.
verb
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(tr) to act as a barrier between
a range of mountains separates the two countries
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to put or force or be put or forced apart
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to part or be parted from a mass or group
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(tr) to discriminate between
to separate the men from the boys
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to divide or be divided into component parts; sort or be sorted
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to sever or be severed
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(intr) (of a married couple) to cease living together by mutual agreement or after obtaining a decree of judicial separation
adjective
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existing or considered independently
a separate problem
-
disunited or apart
-
set apart from the main body or mass
-
distinct, individual, or particular
-
solitary or withdrawn
-
(sometimes capital) designating or relating to a Church or similar institution that has ceased to have associations with an original parent organization
Synonym Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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separatenessnoun
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unseparatenessnoun
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reseparateverb
-
preseparateverb (used with object)
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nonseparatingadjective
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unseparateadjective
-
unseparatedadjective
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unseparatingadjective
-
well-separatedadjective
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separatelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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separatesimple
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separatessimple
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have separatedperfect
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has separatedperfect
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am separatingprogressive
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are separatingprogressive
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is separatingprogressive
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have been separatingperfect progressive
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has been separatingperfect progressive
Past
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separatedsimple
-
had separatedperfect
-
was separatingprogressive
-
were separatingprogressive
-
had been separatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of separate
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”; see prepare
Explanation
Things that are separate are kept apart from other things. A married couple heading for divorce might eat breakfast at separate tables. You can use the adjective separate to describe something that is thought of as different or not related to other things. The adjective is from the Latin prefix se- "apart" plus parare "to prepare." Separate is also used as a verb, pronounced "SEP-uh-rate." Separate is one of the most commonly misspelled words, so beware of the erroneous spelling, seperate.
Vocabulary lists containing separate
"The Civil Rights Movement"
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"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
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Remote Learning: Synonyms for "Far"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a separate screed regarding the need to regulate A.I.,
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2026
A separate group of lawsuits filed in federal district court in Philadelphia around the same time also allege that Novo and Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs caused NAION, and that the companies failed to adequately warn patients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Rights group Amnesty International said an important first step towards protecting South Africa's women was to recognise femicide as a separate crime.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
This is admittedly separate from Scott Tenorman’s parents being made into chili, and from the episode-length love letter to Casa Bonita that eventually helped turn Trey Parker and Matt Stone into actual restaurant owners.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
When he brought this up at a meeting, his reward was to be hauled into a separate room by Joe Cassano, who screamed at him that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
"This study gives us real-world evidence about what separates a storm that is becoming organized from one that remains tilted and less capable of strengthening."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
“That’s honestly the thing that separates him. That’s pretty rare to find.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Anak Krakatoa, which means Child of Krakatoa, sits in a strait that separates the islands of Java and Sumatra.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
What really separates England and Denmark is price.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Mom was sitting on a stool at the high counter that separates the kitchen from the rest of the great room.
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
It was at about 15:00 BST on Tuesday when he became separated from a relative while at a playground in Brantham, Suffolk.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Patients with irritable bowel syndrome who took an experimental GLP-1 drug reported relief of acute pain and those with knee osteoarthritis and obesity have less knee pain though that can’t be separated from weight loss.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Images collected by New Horizons in 2015 and 2016 showed that its northern region contains city-sized geologic convection cells separated by thin dark lines and broader, more diffuse dark patches.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
The former couple, who tied the knot in March 2017, told People that they had been separated for some time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
The roof was built with an overhang, so that a narrow gap separated the two buildings.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
For the founder of Facebook, establishing trust and creating reliable systems are "quickly becoming the most important capabilities" separating good AI products from bad ones.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
She and a dozen colleagues don cotton gloves, roll up their sleeves and plant themselves on cheap plastic stools for the task of separating out the valuable, intact mushrooms from the busted ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Nvidia has started reporting its data-center sales in two parts, separating the large cloud providers from everyone else.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
Intense ultraviolet radiation from the young Sun would have broken down some nitrous oxide molecules, separating them back into nitrogen and oxygen.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 2, 2026
Before separating, though, he gave Brooklyn a pep talk as they walked along the platform next to the train.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
