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.
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(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
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(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
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unseparatedadjective
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unseparatingadjective
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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
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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:
The drones, built by two separate British companies, have been used in mainland Russia in widespread and successful targeting of military and industrial targets, including refineries and warehouses of online retailer Wildberries.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Stopping one connected structure is also simpler than stopping three separate quarks, making such an interaction more likely, according to Tribedy.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
Soon after opening a separate office in his native northern England he gave an interview there to Elizabeth Day, a writer, whose podcast "How to Fail" invites celebrities to reflect on mistakes they have made.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Quiñones’ unit led a separate effort to find additional cases by reviewing whether people who’d recently become citizens had voted before they were naturalized, then lied about it in naturalization interviews.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Apparently we were all traveling as far as Berlin, then each pursuing her separate route home.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"When that is the focus, there's more that we have in common than we have that separates us," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
MarketWatch: What separates people who want to be rich from those who actually become rich?
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
NIRSpec separates infrared light into its component wavelengths, allowing scientists to determine how gas is moving, what it is made of, and how its properties vary across a region.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
After the World Cup tournament played across 16 very different venues, we asked an architect what separates a great soccer stadium from the rest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“This small space that separates Lkossa from the jungle is called the borderlands. That would be the most direct path into it. It’s also part of the Sons of the Six’s patrol route.”
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Although the friends were separated on this leg, having each taken the route at their own pace, they reunite at Pine Mountain General Store in Pine Mountain Club.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Federal safety rules require planes to be separated by at least 1.5 miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically in such situations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Many have wondered what will happen when families are separated: Who will care for the U.S.-born, citizen children who may be left behind?
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The child had lived with his grandparents since he was two years old after his parents had separated, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
Natalie could see other rooftops in the brief moments of full light, but they were all too far away, separated from her and the Evans family by wide, raging rivers of floodwater.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
As transistor components approach atomic dimensions, however, the interfaces separating different materials become increasingly important.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
Hearn has maintained that he merely touched material that was already separating from the surface and did not cause any damage.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
Anger over soaring electricity bills is separating winning utility stocks from the losers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Roberts, who has also talked about separating the visit from politics, kept his review brief.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
And as I step toward the entrance to the barn I realize one bit of Noise is separating itself from the general murmuring outside.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
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.
