winnow
Americanverb (used with object)
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winnows,
present (3rd person singular)
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winnowed,
past participle, past
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winnowing
present participle
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to free (grain) from the lighter particles of chaff, dirt, etc., especially by throwing it into the air and allowing the wind or a forced current of air to blow away impurities.
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to drive or blow (chaff, dirt, etc.) away by fanning.
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to blow upon; fan.
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to subject to some process of separating or distinguishing; analyze critically; sift.
to winnow a mass of statements.
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to separate or distinguish (valuable from worthless parts) (sometimes followed byout ).
to winnow falsehood from truth.
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to pursue (a course) with flapping wings in flying.
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to fan or stir (the air) as with the wings in flying.
verb (used without object)
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winnows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
winnowed,
past participle, past
-
winnowing
present participle
-
to free grain from chaff by wind or driven air.
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to fly with flapping wings; flutter.
noun
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a device or contrivance used for winnowing.
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an act of winnowing.
verb
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to separate (grain) from (chaff) by means of a wind or current of air
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(tr) to examine in order to select the desirable elements
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archaic (tr) to beat (the air) with wings
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rare (tr) to blow upon; fan
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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winnowsimple
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winnowssimple
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have winnowedperfect
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has winnowedperfect
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am winnowingprogressive
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are winnowingprogressive
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is winnowingprogressive
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have been winnowingperfect progressive
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has been winnowingperfect progressive
Past
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winnowedsimple
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had winnowedperfect
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was winnowingprogressive
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were winnowingprogressive
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had been winnowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of winnow
before 900; Middle English win ( d ) wen (v.), Old English windwian, derivative of wind wind 1
Explanation
To winnow is to blow something away until you are left with what you want, like grain from chaff. If you only want your favorite people to attend your party, you will need to winnow down the guest list from 300 to 30. To winnow is to use air to “separate the wheat from the chaff" — literally or figuratively. If a coach winnows down the top NBA draft picks to his number one choice, then he'll focus his negotiations on that player. Chances are, if you encounter the word winnow on a given day, it is probably not in the literal context of grain.
Vocabulary lists containing winnow
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Mythology
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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:
Faced with far more applications than slots, prestigious colleges winnow the pool of prospective admits through consideration of their academic records, test scores, activities and personal attributes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
So Zaslav has a more focused media group via Streaming & Studios, but leaving HBO Max in his hands will inevitably winnow down its once rich library even further.
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2025
If she does enter the contest, the move is expected to winnow the field because of her national profile, fundraising ability and her multiple successful statewide campaigns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
As the number of participating countries expanded over the decades, the E.B.U. set up two semifinals to winnow the field; the first took place on Tuesday, and the second happens Thursday.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
How was she to winnow down her countless questions to a mere troika?
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Then the RNA winnows the contending olfactory-receptor genes down to one.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2023
It progressively winnows out starlight, and stacks frame after frame to allow any faint planetary light to accumulate and eventually be seen.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 10, 2021
Evolution is blind and evolutionary progress is a misnomer; natural selection carves and winnows according to the ever-changing status quo.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2019
Debora Cahn and John C. Richards’s screenplay winnows the story down almost entirely to the perspective of the title character and the swiftness with which his revered status vanished.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2018
It winnows through the stones as we watch, bubbling into the undeserving earth.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
His contact with his mother winnowed for a few years, though they are now reconnected; his father, Iranian folk musician Hadi Montazeri, remained in close contact, sending his sons weekly groceries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
What’s the point of watching a game that can be winnowed down to a series of inputs and outputs?
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Merit’s measly weekly viewer numbers soon winnowed down further, to 17,000.
From Slate ● Oct. 14, 2025
The music didn’t so much stop for the line as fade out: the leg to Leeds was winnowed away and lost finally in 2021.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2024
Those invaders get winnowed by natural selection, and only a few of them succeed in establishing themselves as human diseases.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The winnowing of victims has been the result of byzantine legal procedures, strict vetting and tightened eligibility rules, which victims told ProPublica and the Inquirer took them by surprise.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
Ask DePetro why someone might prefer his content to the nightly news, and he’ll gesture toward the rapidly winnowing media industry.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
Discovery’s winnowing of bidders is expected to accelerate this week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
Squeezing through its aperture, it’s easy to reflect on the winnowing that happens at the end of our days, as physical, mental and other abilities slowly fade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Genealogists are worked to death winnowing the debris of ancestry for grains of greatness.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
