separate

See also: sepárate

English

Pronunciation 1

  • (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈsɛp.əˌɹeɪt/, /ˈsɛpˌɹeɪt/, (rhotic, also) /ˈsɛp.ɚˌeɪt/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Australia, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈsɛp.əˌɹæɪt/
    • Rhymes: -ɛpəɹeɪt
  • Hyphenation: sep‧a‧rate

Etymology

From Middle English separaten (“to separate”), from separat (“separated”) +‎ -en, from Latin sēparātus, perfect passive participle of sēparō (“to separate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from sē- (“apart”) +‎ parō (“prepare”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“produce, procure, bring forward, bring forth”). Displaced Middle English scheden, from Old English scēadan (whence English shed).

Doublet of sever, also derived from the same Latin verb.

Verb

separate (third-person singular simple present separates, present participle separating, simple past and past participle separated)

  1. (transitive) To divide (a thing) into separate parts.
    Synonyms: partition, split; see also Thesaurus:divide
    Separate the articles from the headings.
    • 2007 March 14, Emma Marris, “The Species and the Specious”, in Nature‎[1], number 446, archived from the original on 22 July 2024:
      Ant taxonomists have decided that anything that's worth separating should be separated at the species level, and have no truck with subspecies at all. Butterfly taxonomists, however, like the triple-barrelled name approach and dote on subspecies. As a result, the numbers of ant species and butterfly species are not directly comparable.
    • 2008, Kshudiram Saha, The Earth's Atmosphere: Its Physics and Dynamics, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 102:
      The mesosphere may be described as the earth's intermediate or middle atmosphere, which separates the thermosphere above from the ozonosphere (or stratosphere) below, both of which are responsible for absorption of most of the ultraviolet part of the solar radiation and preventing it from reaching the earth's surface.
  2. (transitive) To disunite from a group or mass; to disconnect.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disjoin
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 8:35:
      Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
    • 1683, John Dryden, The Art of Poetry:
      From the fine gold I separate the allay [alloy].
    • 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 66:
      There must be some deep-rooted anti-social principle in every man's nature, so dearly does he love aught that separates him from his kind; or is it but one of the many shapes taken by that mental kaleidoscope, vanity, the varying and the glittering, the desire of distinction, sinking into that of notice?
  3. (transitive) To cause (things or people) to be separate.
    Synonyms: split up, tear apart
    If the kids get too noisy, separate them for a few minutes.
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
      It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.
  4. (intransitive) To divide itself into separate pieces or substances.
    Synonyms: break down, come apart, disintegrate, fall apart
    The sauce will separate if you don't keep stirring.
  5. (obsolete) To set apart; to select from among others, as for a special use or service.
    Synonyms: earmark, sepose; see also Thesaurus:set apart
Alternative forms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Pronunciation 2

Etymology 1

    Inherited from Middle English separat (“separated”), from Latin sēparātus, see -ate (“adjective-forming suffix”) and Etymology 1 for more.

    Adjective

    separate (not comparable)

    1. Apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else).
      This chair can be disassembled into five separate pieces.
      • 2002, Joan L. Bybee, Michael Noonan, Complex Sentences in Grammar and Discourse, page 152:
        Syntactically, hendiadic constructions differ from synthetonic sequences in that the latter are separate clauses, and hence are separately negatable and may have different tenses and aspects and different subjects.
    2. (followed by "from") Not together (with); not united (to).
      I try to keep my personal life separate from work.
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Etymology 2

      From a substantivization of the above adjective, see -ate (“noun-forming suffix”) and Etymology 1 for more.

      Noun

      separate (plural separates)

      1. (usually in the plural) Anything that is sold by itself, especially articles of clothing such as blouses, skirts, jackets, and pants.
      2. (bibliography) A printing of an article from a periodical as its own distinct publication and distributed independently, often with different page numbers.
      Usage notes
      • The spelling is separate (-par-). seperate (-per-) is a common misspelling.
      See also

      Anagrams

      German

      Pronunciation

      Adjective

      separate

      1. inflection of separat:
        1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
        2. strong nominative/accusative plural
        3. weak nominative all-gender singular
        4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

      Interlingua

      Adjective

      separate (not comparable)

      1. separate

      Participle

      separate

      1. past participle of separar

      Italian

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /se.paˈra.te/
      • Rhymes: -ate
      • Hyphenation: se‧pa‧rà‧te

      Adjective

      separate

      1. feminine plural of separato

      Noun

      separate

      1. plural of separata

      Verb

      separate

      1. inflection of separare:
        1. second-person plural present indicative
        2. second-person plural imperative

      Latin

      Pronunciation

      Verb

      sēparāte

      1. second-person plural present active imperative of sēparō

      References

      • “separate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
      • “separate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
      • “separate”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

      Norwegian Bokmål

      Adjective

      separate

      1. definite singular of separat
      2. plural of separat

      Norwegian Nynorsk

      Adjective

      separate

      1. definite singular of separat
      2. plural of separat

      Spanish

      Verb

      separate

      1. second-person singular voseo imperative of separar combined with te
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