sift
Americanverb (used with object)
-
sifts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sifted,
past participle, past
-
sifting
present participle
-
to separate and retain the coarse parts of (flour, ashes, etc.) with a sieve.
-
to scatter or sprinkle through or by means of a sieve.
to sift sugar onto cake.
-
to separate by or as if by a sieve.
-
to examine closely.
The detectives are still sifting the evidence.
- Synonyms:
- probe, search, inspect, scrutinize, sort
-
to question closely.
verb (used without object)
-
sifts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sifted,
past participle, past
-
sifting
present participle
-
to sift something.
-
to pass or fall through or as if through a sieve.
verb
-
(tr) to sieve (sand, flour, etc) in order to remove the coarser particles
-
to scatter (something) over a surface through a sieve
-
(tr) to separate with or as if with a sieve; distinguish between
-
(tr) to examine minutely
to sift evidence
-
(intr) to move as if through a sieve
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sifternoun
-
outsiftverb (used with object)
-
presiftverb (used with object)
-
resiftverb (used with object)
-
unsiftedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
siftsimple
-
siftssimple
-
have siftedperfect
-
has siftedperfect
-
am siftingprogressive
-
are siftingprogressive
-
is siftingprogressive
-
have been siftingperfect progressive
-
has been siftingperfect progressive
Past
-
siftedsimple
-
had siftedperfect
-
was siftingprogressive
-
were siftingprogressive
-
had been siftingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sift
before 900; Middle English siften, Old English siftan; cognate with Dutch, Middle Low German siften; akin to sieve
Explanation
To bake a cake, you sift the flour to get out the lumps. When you sift, you separate out one thing from another. When you sort through the mail looking for the bills or go through your photos to find that shot of your dog, that’s sifting, too. Detectives sift through piles of evidence when investigating crimes, and you might sift through the hundred applications you get from drummers eager to join your band, to find Ms. Right. When you're at the beach, you can sift sand through your fingers, and you might see big machines that sift the sand to clean it.
Vocabulary lists containing sift
Stairway To Leaven: Baking Vocabulary
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Holes
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Ender's Game
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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:
But while AI could boost the efficiency and use of renewables, the technology has long been used by oil and gas companies to sift through geological data, identify underground reservoirs and streamline fossil fuel production.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
In the U.S., law-enforcement officials have tied Chinese actors to breaches involving hundreds of millions of records—a haul of intelligence even a bureaucracy as massive as China’s would struggle to sift.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Rescue teams and family members continue to sift through the rubble in search of victims and loved ones, with nearly 17,000 people injured in the tremors.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
She remembers scooping up what remained of her artwork and watching it sift through her fingers, the porcelain broken and changed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The magistrate gave the defense four months to sift through the eight thousand pages of typed evidence and twelve thousand documents to prepare its case.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
AI sifts through tens of millions of records of data for marketers, who then create AI agents that carry out complex marketing tasks.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
In an office in central London, Signify's small team quietly sifts through thousands of posts.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
Meticulous in his habits and wedded to his routines, George loves the sterile formality of the police interview room, where, unmoved by the emotional outbursts of others, he patiently sifts fact from fabrication.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
All day, he sifts sand and hauls broken bricks, halting at nightfall: Batteries for LED lights are too scarce and expensive to keep working into the darkness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2025
As for me, I sit in the sand, enjoying the gritty feeling as it sifts through my wriggling toes.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Agents sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
In an abandoned luxury apartment in the Syrian capital Damascus, armed men dressed in military fatigues sifted through designer clothes and documents.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Then they sifted through each potential match to trace the two whales' journey across the world.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
The AI sifted through my Google Drive for relevant interview transcripts and searched the web for facts at my bidding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Otherwise the dust billowed like sand over Khartoum and sifted deep into her scalp, where even a good brushing failed to dislodge it.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Instead, it was a layered cake made from whipping butter and sugar until it was frothy and then sifting in the dry ingredients.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
The Emmy Awards have become a streamlined affair in recent years, as voters, sifting through a fragmented TV landscape, inevitably land on a small set of favorite programs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Others carry the earth to a nearby seasonal river, where mostly women crouch in the murky water, washing and sifting mud and sand hoping to detect a tiny trace of the element.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The regional governor published photos of rescuers sifting through the rubble of a small house.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
We spent the entire night sifting through our belongings, which the firemen had strewn around the bedroom or had gotten wet as they’d tried to fight the fire.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
